May 24, 2024

The Harriers are pleased to announce their Summer Challenge for 2024 – Parks Run.

The basic idea is to run in as many parks as you can during the challenge period.  With many accessible local urban parks as well as lots of rural and wilderness parks this caters to all.  Travelling, no worries as non-local parks count too.  So get out there, explore the wealth and variety of our parks, discover some new ones, and have fun!

The primary metric for the challenge will be the number of different "parks" you "run" in at least once during the challenge period.  There may be rewards for certain score levels, eg 75 gets you a pair of PIH gloves, 150 a toque, whatever you get the idea.  There may be special prizes for overall top score, most in a day or a run, best photos or stories, etc.  These may be awarded at a celebration in late September.  All these details are still being worked out.

While anyone can participate in the challenge, only club members in good standing, ie paid up for 2024, will be eligible for rewards, prizes, special recognition, etc.

Now for the pesky details DOP:

• As announced to a Tuesday Night Workout group, the challenge period starts on Wednesday May 15th.  It was originally going to end September 15th, but the last day of Summer a week later, Sunday September 22nd, seems more appropriate.
• Eligible activities ("runs") must be done on foot, eg run, hike, walk or a combination.
• Qualifying runs must be at least 5km in distance or 30 minutes of moving time.
• Eligible "parks" are those formally recognized or generally treated as such, and owned / managed by an appropriate civic body, eg municipality, regional district, province, country, etc.
• Qualifying parks are those you run within, generally off-road, for at least 50m.  Running along a road bordering the park or a major road that cuts through generally doesn't count.  Use your descretion.  This is a friendy challenge.
• Several parks can be counted on the same run, but each only once for that run.
• There should be at least an hour between runs.
• Still to be determined is whether certain parks or types of parks score more than others.
• Similarly, some large, disjoint or long linear parks may be broken up into separate countable sections.

To aid scoring a reporting website is being developed: https://harriers.testdis.com – thanks Steve.

• You will need to register with a valid email address and provide your full name.  This is strictly for internal administrator use in case we need to contact you to verify some information, or award you.
• You get to set your password.  You also get to set a username or alias, and only this may be publically visible.  All can be changed.
• Within your account you can log runs specifying a title and date, and list the parks visited within that run.
• Known parks can be selected from an auto-complete list, or you can manually add additional parks for acceptance.
• You also have the option to load a trace.  Only the course gpx (latitude & longitude) information will be extracted.  Soon we hope to have logic to detect and offer parks likely visited.
• None of this run information is publically viewable, but anonymized data may be included in aggregate display totals and heatmaps.
• You will also be able to see the list all the parks you have run in and how many times.
• We may also have lists and maps showing all the known parks with visit and claimant counts, with links to the official webpage for the park.
• And leaderboards.

Alternately you can keep track yourself and just let us know periodically.

This kmz file can be imported into Google Earth to show the ~1800 park parcels within the CRD – thanks Shane.  You can click to get details like name, jurisdiction and type.  Not all of these parcels will count separately, as some parks are made up of several, eg 96 for the Galloping Goose.  [Argh too large for here, will post elsewhere or trim and post here]

Questions: email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.