AoC Sport launches collective Around the World Lockdown Challenge

With the news of a second national lockdown, AoC Sport is launching the Around the World in 30 days challenge to keep staff and students active and to maintain their mental wellbeing. We want all member colleges to virtually travel across the world using the free Strava app and collectively reach 46,975 miles in 30 days by running, walking or cycling. There will be a national leaderboard for cycling, running/walking, and a cumulative activity mileage total, so colleges can compete against each other and be in the running for prizes. We will also be tracking the route and counting down the miles via social media to maintain interest. The key difference to previous challenges is that this will be a collective total, rather than individual colleges, giving an opportunity for the sector to come together and achieve the target. We want as many staff and students to get involved as possible to encourage physical activity and maintain a positive relationship to physical and mental health during the lockdown. To support this, AoC Sport have created a five ways to wellbeing toolkit for colleges with examples of how different aspects of the challenge can be linked to improving mental wellbeing. All activity contributes to the college and national total, so whether this is a walk around the park, 5k run or 15-mile cycle, everything has a positive contribution to the total, so get out and get moving!

Timeline and format

AoC Sport and Natspec member colleges can register for the challenge from Tuesday 10 November by completing this sign up form The Challenge will start on Monday 16 November via AoC Sport’s Instagram and Twitter Colleges have until Tuesday 15 December at 4pm to complete the challenge and can sign up at any point before then. A national leaderboard will be available on our dedicated Around the World in 30 days webpage and thiswill be updated on Mondays and Thursdays. Please be aware that on the Strava app leaderboards refresh every Sunday at 23.59.

Prizes

There are six opportunities in total to win prizes. There will be three prizes for the colleges who contribute the most miles towards the national total. This will be total miles including both cycling and running/walking. There will also be a random prize draw for all participating colleges that reach 200 activities within the 30-day period. All colleges who reach the 200 activities target will have the chance of winning one of the three additional prizes up for grabs. The leaderboard will be finalised and winners will be announced by Tuesday 15 December.

How to get involved

College staff need to:

• Register for the challenge here. Once registered AoC Sport will provide next steps, which will include the college sharing their Strava club links. If colleges don’t already have Strava clubs set up, AoC Sport will create these for you.
• Encourage students and staff to set up Strava accounts and join the college club
• Encourage students and staff to take part in the challenge and record activity

When students and staff complete an activity on the app, their distance contributes to their overall college club total, which then gets added to the national leaderboard and contributes to the national college target of 46,975 miles. Around The World Staff Guide Around The World Participant Guide

Safeguarding guidance

We strongly recommend that you set up privacy zone for your address on your Strava account. These privacy zones will restrict others from seeing where you start and finish. So if you are starting or finishing your exercise from your house this won’t appear on your Strava map. A guide on how to set up privacy zones

Risk Assessment

The safety and wellbeing of students and staff is of paramount importance whilst taking part in any sort of physical activity. Therefore, we advise that as you would do in any sports activity, a risk assessment should be done. This should include the routes being taken and that users follow the highway code. Below is the guide giving detailed instruction on the challenge, Strava app and further safety advice. Please share this with students and staff involved in the challenge.