New AoC Sport lockdown challenge spurs colleges to go to the moon

Colleges have been around the world, now it’s time to get out of this world.

With the news of a third national lockdown, AoC Sport is launching the Lunar Challenge to keep staff and students active and to maintain their mental wellbeing.

We want all member colleges to virtually travel to the moon using the free Strava app and collectively reach 238,855 miles by running, walking or cycling by the end of February.

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.

The key difference to previous challenges will be the weekly spot challenges throughout, to support staff and students, which will be linked to the 5 Ways to Wellbeing.

Each spot challenge will be announced by each Friday, for the following week.

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 has 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 7 January by completing this sign up form

The Challenge will start on Monday 11 January via AoC Sport’s Instagram and Twitter

Colleges have until Sunday 28 February to complete the challenge and can sign up at any point before then.

A national leaderboard will be available on our dedicated Lunar Challenge webpage and this will be updated on Mondays and Thursdays. 

Please note that all activity for the week must be logged (completed) by 8pm every Sunday to count in the leaderboard. Any activity after this point will not be used.

Please be aware the Strava app leaderboards refresh every Sunday at 23.59.

Prizes

There will be multiples opportunities to win prizes and keep staff and students engaged. For those who are competitive, 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 300 activities during the Challenge. In addition there will be prizes for each weekly spot challenge to keep participants engaged.

The leaderboard will be finalised and winners will be announced by Tuesday 2 March.

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 238,855 miles.

At the end of the challenge every participating college will be asked to complete a short monitoring and evaluation form about who has taken part.

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.

Guide

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.

Lunar Challenge Guide

Tackling Inactivity

Let's Move - Tackling Inactivity -To support in reaching the wider student population we have created a one pager to be shared with tutors so they can engage their students to be more physically active. We’d really like to see students from across all curriculum areas involved in the challenge and hope the resource supports your college.