The 2022 Moorestown Running and Walking Challenge (MRWC) sponsored by the township Parks and Recreation Department is a year-round program designed to encourage residents to explore the community’s trails, parks and streets.
“The primary goal of the program is to get people to come out and about in our town to enjoy … an opportunity to see maybe parts of the town they haven’t seen in the past,” said program coordinator Rich Corbin.
According to the official website for the 2022 challenge, a $20 registration fee is required to sign ups. The Parks and Rec department will administer the program, create segment races and provide status updates throughout the year.
Members’ segment times and the number of completed segments will be recorded using a free Strava account.
Corbin explained that the Strava app allows the department to set up areas in town, known as segments, that people can run or walk through. The details are recorded through the person’s device and automatically uploaded to the app.
Moorestown resident Jason Weber designed the idea for the program after introducing the Strava app to Corbin.
“He said, ‘There’s some really neat features you can do with Strava that allow you to set up clubs and track the performance of the club and individuals in the club to see how many miles they travel in a month or in a week,’” Corbin said of Weber.
Moorestown resident Randhy Rodriguez created videos for the program that can be seen on the Parks and Rec department’s official Facebook page or at https://www.2022mrwc.com.
“Jason came up with the idea and he, myself and Randhy have kind of run with it, and Randhy and Jason have been really the brainchilds behind the videos that we have rolled out,” Corbin said.
Awards will be based on certain categories, with participants’ total mileage tallied at the end of the year. Each month, three new segment challenges of varying lengths will be determined by the department and added to the MRWC club on the app. A short segment is a half of a mile or less, a long segment is one mile or more and the final segment will be a trail or park.
Each segment will have a leaderboard that ranks MRWC members who match the GPS trace between the defined start and finish.
“They can see their results on this leaderboard that we have for the club,” Corbin explained. “It’s a private Strava club that I set up so when somebody registers through our Parks and Rec website, I will then give them access to the Strava club so they can see their results and everybody else’s results.”
Corbin looks forward to seeing the program bring people together.
“I think what I’m going to enjoy most about it is just seeing the community enjoying our town and getting some exercise in the process,” he said.
Anyone who is interested in signing up for the program can visit https://www.moorestown.nj.us/482/Parks-Recreation or https://www.2022mrwc.com/.
