Welcome to the third annual 2023 AWCH Spring Challenge:
EVERY KILOMETER COUNTS, European Edition

Here is all the information you need to participate in this fun group fitness experience!

Who: AWCH members, friends, and family anywhere in the world

What: Together with a team, you will embark on a virtual fitness relay race of about 10,000
kilometers. We begin in Dublin and visit 20 national parks across Europe, the UK, and
Ukraine before returning to Hamburg. Will your team cross the virtual finish line first? Every
kilometer of activity you record moves your team closer to the prize!

When: From May 1 to June 30. The awards ceremony will be held live on July 2 at the AWCH
Independence Day party.

The Grand Prize: The winning team will receive a 75€ donation to a charity of their choice!

Entry Fee for Members: Participation is FREE for all AWCH members
Entry Fee for Guests: 10€ for adults; 7€ for children (up to age 18)
Pay your entry fee at Payhip.com/AWCHbooks.
Guests are warmly invited to become AWCH members, and then your

Spring Challenge registration is FREE! Apply at awchamburg.org.

Join the Race: Every participant must create an account at My Virtual Mission. You do not need to RSVP on the website AND you can sign up via the included link TODAY! Team assignments and mission launch is on May 1!
Please click HERE to join the AWCH Spring Challenge. You need to register for an account or sign in if
you’ve participated in the past. You can also download the MyVirtualMission app.

My Virtual Mission is GDPR compliant, and we always protect your personal information.

The Teams: Only two teams this year – after two feminist women from Hamburg. You will be
sorted into a team on May 1. When you sign up and it asks which team you are on, choose
“I’m not sure.” We’ll let you know soon!

Log Your Kilometers: Record your activity by syncing your phone or sports tracker to your
My Virtual Mission account. You may also enter your exercise manually. For activities that
aren’t distance-based (such as spring cleaning, yoga, tennis, or gardening), you can use this
conversion chart.
Connect with your Team: When you sign up online, you will be asked if you want to be
added to your team’s WhatsApp group. This is totally optional, and the groups will be
different than previous years. You can cheer each other on and arrange activities together.

Reaching Milestones: When your team arrives at one of the national park milestones, you
will receive an email with some fun facts about the park written especially for us by a
participant of this event. Participants who submit blurbs will earn a bonus of 75 kilometers!
Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to earn your reward while “supplies” last.

Here are the Rules:

1) The administrator, Hannah B., will assign each AWCH member to two groups evenly
and randomly, with an eye to proximity of members. The wild card remains that
friends and family members may be recruited to join your team. Please promptly let
me know if you would like to switch teams.

2) If you choose to connect your device to the MyVirtualMission app, please be sure to
only use ONE CONNECTION. (You are not required to use a tracking device, and
manual entries alone are allowed.)

3) There will be friendly WhatsApp groups for each team. Everyone is welcome – just
let us know on the MyVirtualMission site if we should add you. You may add your
friends and family if you choose.

4) Kilometers must be recorded by every Sunday at midnight for the previous week.
People may join at any time, however they may only ‘back’ record miles to the
beginning of the week they joined. The week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday.

5) Conversion Chart: Please use this document to accurately log activities that aren’t
based on distance or to convert your miles to kilometers. Although there has been
some disagreement about this conversion chart in the past, it is our only way to keep
things consistent. www.myvirtualmission.com/downloads/guides/mvm/MVM-
Activity-Conversion-Chart-2021-01.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) How do I explain this to someone who has never participated in a virtual fitness
challenge? Two teams filled with AWCH members and people they love will keep
track of their exercise, walking, biking, cleaning, gardening, etc. As team members
exercise and move, they will enter their effort/distance into the app manually or
have a sports watch or phone sync with it automatically. All that effort gets
translated into kilometers/miles, and the virtual token for each of the teams moves
along our virtual route, visiting 20 national parks around Europe. 10,000 km later, the
winning team gets to celebrate at Independence Day event on July 2 with a 75€
donation made in their honor!

2) Do you monitor for cheating? No way! But I do make sure that the limitations of the
product are addressed. Each tracking device (sports watch, phone, etc.) has its own
coding, which makes it impossible for the platform to code for every exception. If
someone notices duplications, I will attempt to research the issue and make the
necessary adjustments.

3) Have the teams been fair? Always! Previously, we divided the entire club into four
geographical teams, but some areas ended up with more people participating than
others. This year, we will try to divide the participants into equal teams of AWCH
member participants, with an eye toward proximity of your team members.

4) Why do you let friends and family participate? This annual event originally started
with two goals in mind: 1) Bring everyone back together after Covid, when being
together outside was safe, and 2) To introduce potential members to the club.
*The Spring Challenge is a great way to invite new members! Think of the free
registration as a 22% discount coupon if they join the club instead of paying through
PayHip.

5) How can I help? Thanks for asking! Encourage people to sign up – members and non-
members. Volunteer to write a milestone. Have fun. Call someone on your team that
you don’t know and go for a walk or bike ride together. Let me know immediately if
something is bothering you. I may not be able to remedy it this year, but I can try
again next year.

6) If I have an issue with anything, who should I contact? For 2023: Hannah Bergland,
+49-171-833-3351 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Many thanks to Carol H., who was a co-admin for the last two years! Being an admin
entails hours of work setting up the course, setting up milestones, typing up rules,
getting the event publicized, on-boarding folks, troubleshooting, and writing and
finding photos for each of the milestones you receive. She was unstoppable!