TOPIC: There and Back Again, A Workout Competition

Prize Update:
Congrats to Dave on being the first to reach the Precious, and thanks to him for donating the prize money right back into the competition. Current prize state is as follows:

1. Golden Fleece to the next person who reaches the Precious.
2. Shield of the Scholar, donated by an anonymous awesome person, to whichever hobbit has improved the most since week 1 in the competition (IE ramped up their activity the most.
3. $120 awarded randomly on June 1st to someone that reached Bree.
4. Better health and well being to everyone who's participated.

Covid has been awful for my physical health, and I'm sure it has been for a lot of other people too. We're going to have a workout competition to try and kick ourselves into shape, or at least be less idle. Bilbo Baggins traveled 510 miles to find his precious, and we're going to virtually do the same. Rules are simple:

1. Activity will be tracked in active minutes. This is time when you're physically active....working out, going for a walk with your dog, running from spiders, etc. It does not count walking from your living room to your kitchen, taking out your trash, or packaging tokens. If you have a heavy token box and choose to spend 30 minutes doing crunches with it, that would count. You're free to track this manually, with a fitness tracker, however you want. Send me your minutes and I'll add them to the published There and Back Again tracking spreadsheet. This is very much on the honor system, so be honorable please. The point is to motivate each other to get more fit, winning is secondary.
2. Every 10 minutes of activity counts as 1 mile. This means that to complete your journey for the precious you need to complete 85 hours of activity. This is a race. Whomever gets to the precious gets to pick their prize, whomever gets there second gets whichever prize is left.
3. I will be providing a golden fleece as a prize. Entry fee into the race is $10 per person, which will go into a prize pool for a second prize. If you want to participate and not pay the entry fee you're absolutely welcome, you just won't be eligible to win a prize.
4. I'll be updating the sheet with everyone's progress once a day, and intend to use everyone's screen names. If you feel uncomfortable with that let me know and you can use a pseudonym instead.
5. We'll officially start Monday, April 12th. If you're coming to this thread late and still want to work out with us late entries are allowed, you'll just have to work harder to catch up.
6. Prize for most improved hobbit. Whichever hobbit (slow group) shows the most improvement from Week 1 will get a Shield of the Scholar, donated by an anonymous benefactor.

The Party:
1. Josh M*
2. Grizwald*
3. Casey Wren*
4. Phil Norton*
5. Azzy*
6. Singsalot*
7. BPSymington*
8. Balin*
9. Dave*
10. Wade*
11. Komrade Kory*
12. Lord Mindflayer*
13. Lord Rand
14.

Competing for the Love of the Game (Not eligible for prizes)
1. Arcanist Kolixela
2. Dragon6483
3.
4.
5.

* = paid

Here's the link to the tracking spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1988dAZqcoQdEexw0lN0mVSu8sSsJ7yocPDih16J8djs/edit?usp=sharing

(Reserved in Case)

I'll join

I'm in as a paid player. I need to find "my precious" rhythm again.

In!

Phil

You can add me as Competing For the Love of the Game.

I'm in.

I'll join and pay

When you send me your entry fee through PayPal please remember to add your username as a comment. I'm awful with names and know most of you by your usernames/handles. Right now I've had three people send me payments and I only know who one of them is.

I'm in as a wizard. I'll pay.

I'm in as a registered member of the fellowship. Balin, at your service!

Paid