Congratulations participants of the Camrose PCN 90 day 2013 MUSH Virtual Trek! 

You walked, ran, swam, biked, danced and MOVED!! The virtual trek was created to provide a fun way for you to works towards a healthier you and you are well on your way!! 

The 2013 MUSH Iditarod Virtual Trek, which began on January 15th had 523 participants joining in on this unique fitness challenge – together logging over 260 million steps.  You virtually travelled the journey of the Alaskan Iditarod Trail, which not only increased your physical and mental well-being, you received valuable health and fitness tips along your journey. 

A key partner in the success of this year’s trek is the Augustana Fitness Center. They have played a substantial role to the success of the trek this year with keeping track of participant’s progress on their bulletin board, being a part of the kick-off and wind-up events as well as providing the grand prize of a One Year Membership. In partnership with Jalene and Deanna from the Fitness Center, the PCN is excited to announce this year’s winner, logging 1.2 million steps is Keitha Cunningham! Way to go Keitha – you are an inspiration to us all!  To encourage everyone to participate at their own fitness levels, the grand prize draw was done a little different this year. Every single person who registered in the MUSH Virtual Trek was entered into the draw.  The more check points they reached throughout their trek journey gave them an entry into the grand prize draw.   We really wanted this year’s trek to focus on individual “success”.  We would like to give honorable mentions to the top five finishers, Harvey Litke, Tom Smith, Kelly Bauer, Veronica Galenza and Jim Kupka,   This year’s trek had many participants logging well over 2 million steps with and with a few even over 3 million steps.  

The Group Challenge of the MUSH trek, supported this year by the Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition, measured the progress of the groups against the progress of other groups within the trek program. The Group Activity Graph compared activity against other groups in the program based on the percentage of active members for their past seven days. The group challenge took the total of all the steps for the group, and averaged it by the number of steppers in the group. This way it didn’t matter if the group is large or small, it was all fair.  The PCN is pleased to announce the group THE HAPPY WANDERERS as the 2013 winners! Members of THE HAPPY WANDERERS include Pat Lofvendahl, Bill Maertens-Poole, Marlene Maertens-Poole and Wilf Maertens-Poole.  “The Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition is proud to support the efforts made by Camrose PCN in promoting healthier living through initiatives like MUSH. We are also delighted to award the group winners with $500 to further encourage their healthy living needs,” states coalition member Jane Cherry.

“The Camrose PCN Physician Group, along with our health care provider team, would like to congratulate all MUSH participants and celebrate each of their personal success,” states Stacey Strilchuk, Camrose PCN Executive Director. “The PCN is very fortunate to be able to collaborate with partners like The Augustana Fitness Centre and The Camrose Healthy Lifestyle Coalition in a way that is meaningful and relevant to individuals in their journey towards health and well-being.”

The PCN received a lot of positive feedback on the virtual trek tool – with people using it as a tool to keep them motivated in their fitness activities.  To keep the momentum going, the PCN is pleased to announce people will be able to continue using the tool for their own personal fitness journey until the 2014 Virtual Trek.   While the official PCN trek is complete, we encourage everyone to use it as their own personal fitness tool.   Even if you didn’t join the official trek – it’s not too late to join!! See how far you can journey down the Iditarod Trail over the next year!  Reward yourself each time you make it!

To learn more about continuing on the trek or to register for your own journey, please visit the virtual trek page.