Stepping and Running Into Spring

I got some money on the line at StepBet and RunBet.

I’m maxed out in both of those places, actually.

Let’s start with StepBet.

Maintainer: 2/3 through 3/15, $40

I enrolled in this one last night—on the last night of Week 1, which was the “warm-up” week. Week 1 of this 6-week StepBet does not count toward winning or losing. But Weeks 2-6 do count.

Today begins Week 2. In this week and each of the next four, I have to do the following:

• Log 16,510 steps a day for 2 separate days (the “power” days)
• Log 13,655 steps a day for 4 other days (the “active” days)
• Log as many steps or as few steps as I want on the remaining day (the “rest” day)

If I get my two power days logged early in the week, any subsequent power days count as active ones for quota purposes.

Heart Month Flex: 2/10 through 3/22, $40

I enrolled in this one last night, as well. For the next 42 days, I have to do the following:

• Log 24 days of 13,812 steps (the “active” days)
• Log 12 days or 16,700 steps (the “power” days)
• Log 6 days of whatever number of steps I want (the “free” days)

Once I get my 12 power days in, any subsequent ones count as active days for quota purposes.

There is no “warm-up” week with this—any power and active days logged in Week 1 count toward the quota for the entire game.

Step Marathon: 2/3 through 3/29, $60

I started this the day before it started, on 2/2. I fouled up the first week, but because that was a warm-up week I didn’t care too much. But starting today things got real.

To collect a share of this pot—and get my $60 back—I have to log 13,655 steps every day for the next 49 days. Zero rest days. One miss and my $60 is lost.

Timing of eliminations

In the dashboard, you can see how many players are enrolled in each game. You can also see how many people are eligible to win at any given time.

The number of eligible players will decrease as time goes on.

As soon as it becomes impossible for a player to fulfill a step quota—because there are fewer days available to log a remaining active-day or power-day requirement—that player drops out of the running and the number of eligible players decrements.

But it is important to note that StepBet allows 24 hours for players to sync their fitness trackers to the app.

So for the Maintainer bet, today—Monday, the first day of Week 2–everyone is eligible. Then,

—tomorrow, Tuesday, everyone will still be eligible, as it is OK to designate Monday as a rest day

—Wednesday, everyone will still show as eligible in the dashboard, thanks to the 24 hour grace period for syncing trackers to update the Tuesday step counts. Anyone who had a rest day on both Monday and Tuesday is a “dead man walking” and will be eliminated the next day.

—Thursday will be the first day that eliminations will show up in the eligible player count. This will continue through Sunday for anyone who has more than one rest day. On Sunday, anyone who didn’t get a power day in by Saturday will be a dead man walking.

—The following Monday—the first day of Week 3—anyone who didn’t get a power day in by Saturday will be officially eliminated. On the following Tuesday, anyone will didn’t complete all of Week 2 is out.

The Maintainer game finishes Sunday, March 15, but will officially finalize on Tuesday, March 17. The intervening Monday, March 16, will be the 24 hour period for syncing the steps for Sunday, the final walking day.

For Heart Month Flex:

—Everybody has to have at least one active day stepped out by the end of Sunday, February 16. Monday, February 17, will be the first opportunity to have “dead men walking,” and they will begin to be eliminated on Tuesday, February 18. Seven “free days” means you’re out of the money; as time goes on, anyone hitting that number will be eliminated.

—By Wednesday, March 11, if you don’t have at least one power day in, you’re out of the money: those folks will start to be officially eliminated by Friday, March 13. With each subsequent day, an additional power day must be logged or else a player will be eliminated. By Sunday, March 22, all players must have 12 power days logged.

—The winners will be credited on Tuesday, March 24.

For the Step Marathon, the eliminations will start showing up in the app dashboard on Wednesday, February 12, as players miss their required daily active day targets. The winners get credited on Tuesday, March 31.

Here’s the screenshot of my February 10 dashboard, after I hit my goal for the day (I hit the power count, even though active count was all that was required). Note that we have 912 players in this game, and only 911 are eligible.

In the chat, people have been speculating why there is one elimination already, even though nobody should be out at this point from failure to meet goal. The speculation is a medical elimination or a cheater who was caught. The eliminated player has actually been reported in the player count for the last few days, during the warm-up week.

RunBet: Get-r-Run: 2/10 through 3/8, $30

So I’m in a $30 RunBet.

This one has some flexibility. While many of them require a certain number of runs a week, in this one I have to run on 21 days out of 28.A

All runs are 17 minutes per mile or faster. I have the following lengths to complete, in order:

• Runs 1-3: 0.5 mile
• Runs 4-9: 1.0 mile
• Runs 10-15: 1.5 miles
• Runs 16-21: 2.0 miles

I can do these on a treadmill in my gym, or outside with my GPS running through an app called Runbetter. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for some of these runs so I can run outdoors. It’s been a mild winter in Metro Detroit.

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So all of this is to help me clinch several jackpot challenges at Healthy Wage that are due at the end of March. I haven’t been losing weight lately. I’m doing intermittent fasting fairly well, but I’ve been eating a lot during my eating window.

I know better but I’m hoping these bets will keep my motivation up. At least they will get me into the gym when I don’t feel like going. I have been touching dumbbells and kettlebells more frequently than usual lately.

This week sucks, though—my wife is in jury duty and I am playing Mr. Mom with two preschoolers. Hopefully justice will be served in a speedy manner. I don’t like the disruption to routine.