Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Keep on Climbing!

Thank you so much to all of our participants in the 2013 Stair Challenge!

We are extremely pleased to announce our runners-up who won a variety of exciting prizes:
Team: Ureteric Buds
Individual: Laura Atwell

Congratulations and great job to all of our winners, and to all of our participants.

Over 4 weeks, stair challenge participants climbed a total of 152,800 floors. That's 152,800 choices to challenge yourselves, 152,800 times you said "No" to the elevator, and 152,800 times that health was chosen over ease. Congratulate yourselves!

We hope all participants have realized the value of taking the stairs, and have found that this small change is simple and feasible. The stair challenge is over, but that does not mean that a commitment to a healthier you needs to be. The saying is true: small steps truly do lead to big change. Keep taking those steps, keep making that change!


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Winding Down

Please congratulate our Week 4 AND our Grand Prize team and individual winners:

Masters of Stairs won goody bags from Well-U, 1-month memberships to Midtown Athletic Club, and iPod shuffles!
Cory Hubbard won a $25 Wegmans gift card and an iPod touch!

Stay tuned for the final Stair Challenge 2013 announcements...

Monday, March 25, 2013

Week 3 Results

Congratulations to the winners for week 3 of the Stair Challenge! 

Cory Hubbard was our individual winner, who won a gift card to Massage Envy Spa
Masters of Stairs was our winning team, who won $25 Wegmans Gift Cards

This week's competition was fierce! The team members of Ureteric Buds really narrowed the gap between themselves and Masters of Stairs, and both teams mightily contributed to the 42,647 floors climbed last week. We hope everyone continues to step it up as we head into the final week! 

The top 10 teams this week were as follows:
1. Masters of Stairs
2. Ureteric Buds
3. Terry's Titans
4. Those Guys from GI
5. Flying Green Monkeys
6. Perfect Strangers
7. Sisterly Stair Power
8. High Stepping Hooligans
9. CRISMA
10. Bust A Move

We would like to remind everyone that runners-up will be awarded prizes such as goodie bags from Well-U and Trader's Joe's. And don't forget the best prize of all: a healthier you! Bring it on home everyone!!


“One that would have the fruit must climb the tree.”  (or stairs!)
-Thomas Fuller



Monday, March 18, 2013

Week 2 Results

Congratulations to the winners for week 2 of the Stair Challenge! 

Andrew Buckley was our individual winner, who won a 1-month Well-U Gym Membership
Masters of Stairs was our winning team, who won $25 Wegmans Gift Cards

The top 10 teams this week were as follows:
1. Masters of Stairs
2. Terry's Titans
3. Sisterly Stair Power
4. Ureteric Buds
5. Bust a Move
6. Those Guys from GI
7. Flying Green Monkeys
8. Off Like a Prom Dress
9. Cardio Cougars
10. The Luscious Ladies and a Lil Side of Pickle

Our participants continue to amaze us, with the total number of floors recorded by all participants climbing to 42,511! (This is an increase of 13,664 floors since week 1!)

We asked the Masters of Stairs if they might share their secrets to success with other participants, as they climbed the most number of floors as a team two weeks in a row. Sure enough, these extreme climbers had some encouraging words of wisdom:

"The best advice that we can give is to make sure to stretch... a lot.  There is nothing worse than taking yourself out of the competition by overexerting one day, not stretching enough, and then being too sore to do many stairs for the next day or two.  Furthermore, be sure to stay well hydrated with plenty of electrolytes.  You don't want to cramp up in the middle of running down stairs. If you have some downtime during the day, rather than sitting at your computer surfing the internet go do some sets of stairs.  You'd be surprised how many floors you can get done in your spare time, even in just 10-15 minute windows.  Do that often, and it adds up pretty quickly.  The more you do, the easier it will become in subsequent days/weeks.

P.S. Bring a lot of fruit... we choose apples."


Thanks Masters of Stairs for sharing your advice!

Good news for all participants: we are happy to inform you that we will also be offering prizes for overall runners-up...so let's crank up the competition and keep on climbing!



“A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs.” 
-Joan Welsh

Monday, March 11, 2013

Week 1 Results

Congratulations to the winners for week 1 of the Stair Challenge! 

Cory Hubbard was our individual winner, who won a $25 Gift Card to Wegmans
Masters of Stairs was our winning team, who won meal vouchers for Cafe 601

The top 10 teams this week were as follows:
1. Masters of Stairs
2. Ureteric Buds
3. Terry's Titans
4. Flying Green Monkeys
5. Perfect Strangers
6. Off Like a Prom Dress
7. Those Guys from GI
8. Cardio Cougars
9. The Luscious Ladies and a Lil Side of Pickle
10. A Step Ahead

What a fantastic job all participants have done during our first week of the challenge. The total number of floors climbed by all participants this week was 28,847! 

General tips and reminders:

  • Continue using clickers to keep track of flights climbed. We have been informed that the clickers are sensitive, so be aware of this if you keep them in your pocket. Wear them on your finger for best results.
  • Reporting is based on the honor system. Please continue to be fair to all participants and report only flights climbed during shifts at URMC. 
  • Small steps lead to big change so KEEP ON CLIMBING!




Thursday, February 7, 2013

Welcome!

We are so excited that you have decided to take on the challenge of burning calories, not electricity! Teams of 2-5 people are invited to participate in this year's challenge.

To register, team leaders should email the following information to stairchallenge2013@gmail.com:

  • the name and email of the team leader
  • the names and emails of all team members
  • your team's name

Each team member will keep track of how many floors they climb - up AND down - during each work day. (After teams register, team leaders will be directed to a location where they can pick up handheld clickers to make the task of tracking floors a cinch!) They will give this information to their team leader, who is responsible for reporting weekly totals (weeks will run from Saturday-Friday) by clicking on the weekly reporting tabs on the left of the blog. Weekly totals must be submitted by midnight every Friday. Individual and team winners will be notified via email and announced on the blog each Monday. Prizes will be awarded to weekly winners, and grand prizes will be awarded to overall individual and team winners!


Each participant will be given a Be in Balance punch card with two punches upon registration. Each time a participant purchases a Be in Balance meal from Cafe 601, s/he will be given another punch. Each completed punch card equals 10 floors added to your team's total at the end of the challenge!

The URMC Stair Challenge 2013 will run from March 4th-29th.


Join the challenge, and March 4th to a healthier you!