Before I get to the final results there are just a couple of highlights that are worth mentioning. The first highlight came in literally as the new year was rung in, "The Guru" (aka Jona) sent a sly text to both myself (The Wannabe) and Mark (The Old Hand) saying how he was on his bike and earning himself the first place in the league table. This had originally been a ploy of mine, to literally go out for a run on the stroke of midnight, but I had drunk far too much to be able to get out in the cold and do this. At the moment the text came through I remember my heart sinking and I almost donned my running shoes to claw back the points. Instead I opened up another beer, poured myself another glass of wine or squeezed another lime into a glass of rum. I can't remember which. Maybe it was all three! Now then, the part which made it a highlight is that Mark did actually put his trainers on and jumped on his running machine. We only found out a week later that it was all just one big wind up by Jona and, since he was ever so slightly inebriated, Mark miscalculated his run and missed out some points by just 90 seconds. He was so gutted!
The other highlight also involved a text from that little Welsh puppeteer. This time the victim was yours truly and it involved press-ups and sit-ups. For some time Jona had been regularly completing 30 press-ups and 100 sit-ups a day. This sensible approach to reaching the desired total of 2012 was perfect because each day's totals were not enough to worry either Mark or myself but it all added up quite quickly. Before long I noticed that he was running away with the competition in this area and, as the points for this area would total 150, I decided my best bet was to try and catch up. To do this I started doing 90 press-ups and over 200 sit-ups a day. I was filling every moment of the day with these things, even to the extent of completing star jumps so Jona could see while he was finishing up his whole school assembly. This was working but I let it slip to Jona and he also upped the volume of his workouts. I kept it going but was just pipped to the post with regard to the sit-ups and Jona took the prize for that one. I kept up with the press-ups and through completing them in the morning, during break times and lunch times at school and then twice when I got home I was totaling 300 a day. We were both getting close to the 2012 desired total and I knew that if both of us really went for it then the total could be achieved in one more day. That is when I had the text from Jona. It was something along the lines of how he had just got home and was going to get started with the press-ups. I couldn't let this one slip like the last and I immediately got down to reaching my target. My wife and daughter just laughed at me while I ever so slowly reached the total but could no longer lift my arms for the pain was so unbearable. They thought I was mad for doing it. The next day was no better and was made even worse by Jona revealing that he had no intention of completing a single press-up that night as he went out with friends. The rest of the day was taken up with jokes about me not being able to lift a whiteboard pen to write on the board!
There are many happy memories, but the best has got to be a run I completed with Jona during my last week at Springfield Primary. It was the best way to finish the academic year, to release a little stress but to also spend a little time with The Guru, a man who has been an inspiration and motivator. Thank you.
But now it is time to get to the points. It has been a fairly close run race all year and even though Jona had to recover from his dislocated knee he quickly showed why he was assigned the nickname "Guru" and why Mark and I were both the amateurs. After Mark decided that "enough was enough" and "retired" from exercise as well as the challenge the competition stepped up a notch with both Jona and I becoming more and more competitive to the point of it getting really silly. 300 plus press-ups in a day being a good example of this. Points were quickly racked up but unfortunately the 2012km target was never quite achieved. I wonder if it was just a step too far or whether I didn't really have it in my motivational schedule.
Each of us recorded our own exercise, inputted it into a spreadsheet and when points were obtained we assigned them to our own totals. The totals at the moment are:
TOTAL POINTS
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Jona
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Roy
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Mark
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473 points
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555 points
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75 points
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The only points we didn't put on were for the "ongoing competition", the part of the competition when points are awarded to the person who is the fastest cyclist and runner of 2012m and 2012 yards, the fastest swimmer of 2012cm and 2012 feet and the person who can swim, bike and run the furthest in 2012 seconds. And this is where it gets really exciting because first and second place receive 100 and 90 points respectively and there are 6 of these up for grabs. I have just gone through all the records and believe I have now the results of this section.
First up is quickest swimmer:
Mark didn't complete any swimming so this was just between Jona and I.
My fastest swim was on the 14th November, 1200m in 44 minutes = 1.6km/hour
Jona's was on 28th August, 200m in 4.23 minutes = 2.8km/hour
Jona = 100pts, Roy = 90pts
Next is cycling:
Mark: 2nd January, 6.14 miles in 32 minutes = 11.5mph
Roy: 17th January, 8.2 miles in 30 minutes = 16.4mph
Jona: 1st November, 9.96 miles in 30.39 minutes = 19.7mph
Jona = 100pts, Roy = 90pts, Mark = 80pts
Fastest runner:
Mark: 1st January, 4.8 miles in 32 minutes = 9mph
Roy: 20th August, 1.8 miles in 14 minutes = 7.7mph
Jona: 15th December, 4.28 miles in 34 minutes = 7.6mph
Mark = 100pts, Roy = 90pts, Jona = 80pts
That part of the competition was meant to be in both metric and imperial (ie fastest 2012km & 2012 yards) so I think the points can just be doubled meaning Jona has just gained 560 points, I gained 540 points while Mark gained 360 points.
The last part of this section is the furthest distance in 2012 seconds. This is slightly different to the fastest as the competitor must complete 2012 seconds of the same activity which equals just over 33 minutes. This means all the cycling sets have to change. Here are the results
Furthest swim in 2012 seconds
Mark: Did not compete
Roy: 14th November, 1200m in 44 minutes = 914m/2012secs
Jona: 11th January, 2046m in 50.38 minutes = 1362m/2012sec
Jona = 100pts, Roy = 90pts
Furthest cycle in 2012 seconds
Mark: did not complete a ride greater than 33 minutes
Roy: 21st February, 16.41 miles in 62 minutes = 8.9miles/2012sec
Jona: 20th February, 17.34 miles in 60 minutes = 9.6miles/2012sec
Jona = 100pts, Roy = 90pts
Furthest run in 2012 seconds
Mark: 4th January, 5.1 miles in 35 minutes = 4.9miles/2012sec
Roy: 28th February, 5.7 miles in 47 minutes = 4.1miles/2012sec
Jona: 15th December, 4.28 miles in 34 minutes = 4.2miles/2012sec
Mark = 100pts, Jona = 90pts, Roy = 80pts
This gives Jona an extra 290 points, Mark an extra 100 points and me an extra 260 points. Those of you are are quick at calculating would have been able to work out that the new points for each competitor are
TOTAL POINTS
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Jona
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Roy
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Mark
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1323 points
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1355 points
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535 points
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That's right, somehow I've managed to win, but only just. Ironically, if Jona had carried on and completed the press-ups then it would have been a different story no matter if he had been the first or last.
This may not be the end of this story though, I could well have added up the points incorrectly, or missed a valuable speed trial and there may be some last minute additions that change it. Either way, thanks for everything everyone. Thanks to those people who have been following this epic battle. In the end there were over 440 different visitors to the blog from 10 different countries.
Do be sure to follow Jona's new challenge of completing 210 hours worth of exercise each and every 7 days. You can follow his tweets HERE
As for me, I'm not too sure, I have a half ironman to do in June, I think I'll give Jona's challenge a go, I've signed up to try and run 1000 miles in the year, details on FACEBOOK and TWITTER, as well as doing Jantastic and 5k a day in May. Either way, I'll get some sort of update going HERE
Thanks again and have a happy new year.
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