Wild Challenges are almost here!

If you like:
      - having goals to chase
      - engaging in a bit of friendly competition
      - finding new ways to motivate yourself
      - experiencing some of the best trail runs in the land; and
      - being in to win cool prizes
all while engaging in your favourite pastime of running, then you’re going to love Wild Challenges, an addition to the Wild Things website that we are working really hard on to get live as soon as possible.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

We are creating 2 types of Wild Challenges – Flash Challenges and Collection Challenges.
 
Flash Challenges:
 -     These are short, quick-fire challenges, that will span as little as a weekend or as much as two or three weeks.
 -     Each challenge will focus on one of three key running or hiking metrics – distance, time or vertical gain – and the goal will simply be to accumulate as much distance, moving time or vertical gain as you can within the allocated window e.g. it might be a Labour Weekend Vertical Challenge or an Easter Weekend Time Challenge or a New Year’s Distance Challenge over the first week of the new year.
 -     Importantly, any run you do within the time given will count, regardless of the surface you run on (yes, even road!) or whether or not the route you take is one featured in the Wild Things Trail Directory.
-      There are endless possibilities for the Challenges we can create and we will keep mixing it up to make sure things stay fresh and fun.
-      To take part in Flash Challenges you will need to have a Strava account that is connected to your Wild Things account. With access to your Strava data we will then simply compute the total distance/vertical gain/moving time that you accumulate over the prescribed time period and display it on a real-time Leaderboard so you can see how you are going and how your efforts stack up against other Wild Challengers.
-      As with other Leaderboards on the site (Wild Explorers, FKTs) you will be able to filter the Flash Challenge Leaderboard by such things as age, gender and level of experience in order to ‘level the playing field’.
 
Collection Challenges:
We are currently building a number of Collections within the Trail Directory. These are compilations of 20 great runs, each with a theme and each of which is sponsored by a Wild Things Partner. Already we have the Altitude Brewing Southern Lakes Collection, the Further Faster Beginners Collection, the Further Faster Port & Banks Collection, the Rab Skyline Mountain Collection, the Scott Gnarly Collection, the Shoe Science Auckland Collection, the Tailwind Ultra Collection and the Zeenya People's Choice Collection; with more to come!
 
While some of these will lend themselves to more experienced or adventurous runners there will also be plenty for the less experienced amongst us too – something for everyone is the goal.
 
Some of the Collections feature runs from all around the country, but others will have a much more Regional focus. So again, whether or not you have the ability to travel, there will be something for everyone.
 
-      Collection Challenges will take place over a longer time period than the Flash Challenges – anything from one month to 6 months.
-      Each time you complete a run from the nominated Collection you will receive Challenge Points that will be added to the Challenge Leaderboard
-      You can earn Challenge Points by running as many different routes from the Collection as you can (we’ll help you keep count!) OR by running the same one(s) multiple times. This means you do not need to be able to travel extensively in order to rack up the points.
-      Having your Strava account connected to your Wild Things account will make participation in any Collection Challenge a lot easier, both for you and for us. But if you don’t connect a Strava account you will still be able to take part, just so long as your runs are recorded with a GPS device and you can send us gpx files for validation purposes.
 
Prizes – it’s about Participation not Performance
 
-      Each Challenge will come with a prize pool – anything from Wild Things merchandise, shop credits & free or extended VIP Membership to some cool sponsor-provided product up to the value of $1,000!
-      At the end of each Wild Challenge you will be able to see the final Leaderboard and where you placed (with or without applying filters). But in line with our ethos of encouraging Participation over Performance, the overall Challenge winners (those at the head of the Leaderboard) will not necessarily win the prizes.
-      Instead, each Challenge participant will earn chances in a prize draw based on how much distance, vertical gain or moving time (Flash Challenges) or Challenge Points (Collection Challenges) they have accumulated. So, by doing more you will increase your chances of winning a prize, BUT doing less will not preclude you from the chance of winning something pretty cool.
-      Some Collection Challenges will also feature monthly interim prizes & prizes for posting your runs to Instagram!

 
This is big!
 
We are guaranteeing at least 20 Wild Challenges a year and a total prize pool worth at least $10,000 a year.
 
 How to become a Wild Challenger
Developing these Challenges is a huge commitment, both in terms of the spend required to create the website functionality and the ongoing administration time (that may well see us having to take on extra paid help). So there will be a small cost to become a Wild Challenger - $49 a year (discounted to $24.50 for VIP Members). This will entitle you to join any or all of the Wild Challenges that are live over the 12 months of your subscription period.
 
Signing up will be an easy process done from your My Account page within the Wild Things website.

The first 100 people to sign up will receive a complementary Wild Challenger bumper sticker.
 
Register your interest 
 
If you think you’d like to become a Wild Challenger you can register your interest, with no binding commitment, by clicking here. By registering your interest in advance you will be given priority notification of when we are going live and taking subscriptions (so improving your chance of getting one of those coveted bumper stickers!)

Feedback please
 
If you have any feedback on what is outlined above or if you’d like to share a smart idea on how to make Wild Challenges even more compelling and fun then please don’t hesitate to email us.