Running News Daily

The Run The World Challenge will motivate you to run more miles...RTW4 starts March 1 with an exciting new format

The Run The World Global Challenge (RTW) is a world-wide celebration of running.  Lifetime runner, Runner's World magazine and My Best Runs founder, Bob Anderson (71) created the event to help further spread the word about the benefits of running. The first RTW Challenge started July 4.  

On March 1 the RTW4 Challenge will start with some changes to make the event even more fun and challenging. 

"Since I started running in 1962 I have been telling people about the sport I love," says Bob Anderson  "I am proud to say I have reached a lot of people but the task is never done.  Run The World is my current project and the feedback from around the world has been very positive."  

Lize Dumon from South Africa posted this on the Run The World Feed January 5. "Possibly my last run for RTW3.  Might do a small one to bring me close enough to 200 miles. Been a priviledge to be a part of all three Run The World Challenges.  I have made loads of friends and learned a lot."  Lize is putting together two South African 14 people teams for RTW4.

Already 260 Run The World runners have run and logged 85,876 miles (as of Feb 5, 2019) since July 4th in 56 different countries. In the little country of Palau alone, teams there have already run and logged 5,648 miles (photo 2 of some of the Palau RTW1 team headed up by Aaron Salvador).  Aaron is putting together two teams of 14 for RTW4.

"Run The World Challenge is a great motivator," says Bob.  "I was running 20 miles a week before Run The World. I now have been averaging 32 miles weekly and I am much better shape because of it.  There are many such stories among the 260 runners who have already participated."  

The first team that started July 4 finished in 36 days 23 hours and 13 minutes (the current world record). Two other teams starting August 29 and October 29 also completed the goal of circling the world.

How does it work? Participants run or walk and then log in those miles (k’s) on their free My Best Runs (MBR) account. The goal is for the team (now group of teams) to log enough miles (k's) to circle the world within 30 days.

The process of running/walking and then logging in miles (k's), making a comment (optional) and posting a photo (optional) is the basic program.  A team member logs into their My Best Runs account to log in the miles they run or walk.

One major change is RTW4 will end 30 days after starting.  "It is hoped one of our three groups of teams will reach our goal within this time frame but if not the group of teams that have logged the most miles win.  All teams within the three groups will also be competing against each other," says Bob.  

All runners will be part of a 14 person team.  The teams have many interesting themes like: Team one will be for runners 70 plus. Team 9 is for those men and women who have or are in the Military. Team 10 and 11 are for Elite Runners.  Team 21 is for India's citizens.  Team 23 are for runners living in Canada. Team 34 are for those runners who have completed at least one 100 mile race.  Team 37 are for runners who have lost 50 or more pounds and are currently running. Team 42 are for runners who have run at least 50 races in one year. (Click the link for the full list of the 42 team.)  

Runers will pick the team of their choice as long as it is not full.  There are 14 different teams (with a maximum of 14 runners per team) making up a group.  

One unique aspect of RTW4 is that one person can be on one team, two or three teams.  BUT the teams have to be in different groups.

When you run, let say five miles, these same miles only need to be entered once and they will be credited for all your teams. 

Registration is now open. "It was hard to pick just one team per group," says Michael Anderson who has done all RTW Challenges. "I could have signed up for several different teams but I decided on Team 30 having fnished at least one Boston Marathon, Team 25 West USA because I live in Bend, Oregon and Team 4 age 40-49.  Can't wait to do this again.  It has really motivated me to run a lot more. Bring it on."