Walk the Walk

#walkthewalk

Updated: March 1, 2019 at 11:12pm

Be on the lookout…we’re having a celebration party over at Wolf and Crane sometime in the middle of March. More info to come soon!

Individual League

We started this league with 20 folks, and at the end of the competition we have 11 left! Congrats to the mighty contenders who were able to get at least 50,000 steps each week for the month of February!

The total steps for this week was 1,098,299, a slight decrease from our total step count last week of 1,196,230 steps. The total step count combined for the individual league was an impressive 4,810,552, which means participants averaged roughly 60,132 steps a week. That’s not too far from the 70,000 steps a week recommended by the American Heart Association.

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, steps from weeks 1 through 4 equate to a total of 2,405 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 4

• Cheers to Bhavika P. for recapturing the top spot this week. Out of our 4 weeks, Bhavika took top spot 3 of those weeks. Congrats!
• Cheers to Cassy H., Bhavika P., and Jaysn X. for making top 5 all 4 weeks of this challenge!
• Cheers to our participants who walked at least 70,000 steps. This week we had 7 (only 1 less than last week)!
• Cheers to Stacy O. for finishing in the top 5 this week!
• Cheers to Dora Q. (29.96%) and Jenny Z. (17.72%) for the highest increase % in steps from week 3 to week 4!

Winnings:

• Given that there were 20 participants in the beginning, and 11 fulfilled all that was needed to complete the Walk the Walk challenge, each of those 11 people wins $27.27 back! Congrats to those who completed the step challenge and are making an additional $7.27 😉 More info to come by email.

Total Cumulative Steps (Just for the heck of it)

Team League

We. Have. A. New. CHAMPION! Congrats to our friends at LURN for rocking it this year in what seems to be the most competitive Walk the Walk team league competition we have ever had!

With a record-setting 173,090 step average, all competition aka ActiveSGV was blown away! Shoutout to ActiveSGV for a great putting up a great fight, but their team-high step count in week 4 of 151,305 steps was not enough to catch up to LURN’s overall total of…wait for it…148,875 steps. ActiveSGV would have needed over 190,000 steps this week to take the top spot. I will say though, props to David Diaz (of ActiveSGV) and his smack talking…it seemed to really motivate all the other teams!

When I asked LURN for a victory speech, this is what was shared:

Big thanks to APIFM for getting us all to move a bit more this month. We feel great! Also big props to all the teams who participated, especially @@@@ActiveSGV. We’re bumping 2pac!…Can you see us? Are you watching? Picture us walking.”

Rudy Espinoza

So there you have it folks, we have our second-ever winner of the Golden Wok. Team LURN, please start finding a nice spot in your office to show it off!

Oh…speaking of the Golden Wok, how did last year’s all-star champs do (JACCC)? They no doubt put up a good fight (102,255 step average for the month is no joke), but alas they finished in 4th place. They were beaten out by a hungry group aka Visual Communications, who started in 5th place in week 1 and clawed their way to a top 3 finish with a strong showing of about 125,000 steps both in week 3 and 4. Props to you Visual Communications for being the top Little Tokyo group, ahead of JACCC, LTSC, and LEAP! JACCC, when can I stop by to pick up the Golden Wok? 🙂

What about last year’s 2nd place winners? Investing In Place finished within the top 5 this year. Last year, they ended the month with a step average of 88,945. This year they upped that 95,449! Last year JACCC was able to take it with 106,542…that would only garner you a 4th place finish this year. My how this game has changed in a year! We can only wonder how next year will be!

Winnings:

• 1st Place: LURN – $800 and Golden Wok
• 2nd Place: ActiveSGV – $400
• 3rd Place: Visual Communications – $200

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 4

Final Overall Rankings after 4 weeks

A few notes on our whole competition:

• 11 of our 25 teams averaged over 70,000 steps each week this month. That’s what the American Heart Association says our average weekly step count should be!
• Of 192 participants this month, folks combined for a staggering 60,034,393 steps! Assuming 2,000 steps is roughly a mile, y’all came together to walk 30,017 miles, or the equivalent of walking from Los Angeles, CA to Warsaw, Poland 5 times!
• Props to the stellar record large teams had this year! API Equality – LA, First 5 LA, American Heart Association, LTSC, So Cal Edison, Advancing Justice – LA, and Kounkuey Design Initiative all had at least 10 (some up to 18) team members. Competing and doing well with that big a team says something #teamwork
• Props to Visual Communication (45.64%), LA Neighborhood Land Trust (36.65%), and LURN (34.79%) for the highest jump in steps from week 1 to week 4!
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. Congrats on being the first-ever winner of our Tiny Wok award this year. The award is given to the last place competitor. Your award will be present at the Walk the Walk party coming up.

Oh did I mention there will be a Walk the Walk party later this month? More info to come, but we’re looking at a Tuesday in the middle of March. Just like last year, we will have a happy hour together at Wolf and Crane in Little Tokyo so you can meet you fellow walkers, and get a chance to take a pic with the legendary Golden Wok!

Thank you again for participating in the Walk the Walk Challenge!

#walkthewalk

Updated: February 22, 2019 at 10:12pm

How y’all feeling? Gosh has February been brutal huh? Rain. Cold. SNOW. The elements are out there against us to get steps this month!

If you haven’t already, join our Facebook group to hear about the latest updates, events to get some steps, encouragement, and of course…smack talk!

Individual League

We started this league with 20 folks, and now we are left with 14! Congrats to everyone who keeps striving for the 50,000 steps each week! Combined step total this week was 1,196,230, only a slight decrease from our total step count last week at 1,214,813.

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, combined with steps from weeks 1 and 2 and that’s a total of 1,776 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Chicago, Illinois!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 2

• Cheers to Sandy Y. for not only having the most steps this week, but also for jumping up 8 spots to take #1. At 130,030, Sandy Y. also had the highest % change in steps, at 85.59%
• Cheers to Cassy H. for maintaining a top 2 spot while also massively increasing steps by 30.99%!
• Cheers to our participants who walked at least 70,000 steps. This week we had 8 (only 1 less than last week)!
• Cheers to our first week with 3 walkers with over 100k steps, Sandy Y., Cassy H., and Bhavika P.
• Cheers to Avani P., Sachiko O., Linda L., Kim W., Stacy O., and Cassy H. for 2 consecutive weeks of step % increase! Keep up the good work!
• Jeers to many things that made it hard to get that step count this week including: 1. the flu season, 2. the lazy draw of Netflix, 3. being stuck in traffic.

Team League

Well, it’s pretty much a certainty at this point that our previous champions…those slick walkers over at the JACCC need to start shining that wok and saying their farewells. It’s looking more and more like they need to get ready to hand the GOLDEN WOK to this week’s first place team (and overall 1st place for the month team) LURN!

Major props to LURN for setting a Walk the Walk Team League RECORD at 153,611 step average for their team. WOW! If we say 2,000 steps is roughly a mile (not super accurate but let’s just go with it), that means each team member at LURN is walking nearly 77 miles a week. MIND BLOWING. Kudos to y’all! They easily took the top spot from last week’s champions, ActiveSGV. What happened?!?! ActiveSGV dropped 7.35% this week and are now behind roughly 7,000 average steps in the overall. Can they make a comeback in the last week, or will they have LURN’d their lesson? *slow clap*

The big other story this week is MAJOR props to Visual Communications. They finished strong this week with 125,660 step average, which is 26.45% higher than week 2! This shakes things up as we talk about who is going to make it into the top 3. JACCC holds onto the overall 3rd spot for the month at 104,508 step average, but Visual Communications is RIGHT THERE 103,605 step average. It’s a battle of Little Tokyo nonprofits (minus LTSC and LEAP…sorry).

Props also to Los Angeles Walks (89,322), who broke the top 5 for the first time, oversteppin’ our last year’s runner’s up (walker’s up?) Investing In Place (86,012).

ALRIGHT…NUMBERS!!!

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 3

When I asked LURN if they had anything to say to their rival, ActiveSGV, they shared:

@ActiveSGV, emphasis on @

Rudy Espinoza

Yikes how you gonna respond ActiveSGV??

Overall Rankings after 3 weeks

A few notes on week 3 results: 

• Amongst our 25 teams, only 23 teams submitted steps this week.
• In overall ranking, there’s a tight race for the top 3 spots. Who will get the gold, silver and bronze??
• Interestingly enough, last week’s average step count was slightly higher at 1,783,518 avg steps, compared to this week’s 1,783,496.
• Of the 23 teams who submitted, the teams combined for a total of 192 team members who contribued 15,066,718 steps!
• Our top 11 teams are averaging at least 70,000 steps, which is the recommended weekly step count by the American Heart Association. That’s one up from last week!
• Props to KYCC (68%), T.R.U.S.T. South LA (Tenemos que Reclamar y Unidos Salvar la Tierra – South LA) (61%), and LA Neighborhood Land Trust (27%) for the biggest % increase in steps from week 1 to week 3!
• Props to Visual Communications (26.45%), California Dept. of Real Estate (19.71%), American Heart Association (13.17%), and LA Walks (12.40%) for the highest percent increase in steps from Week 2 to 3!
• 10th place is within reach for MANY teams. Right now So Cal Edison has a lock on that top 10 finish, but Advancing Justice – LA, API Equality -LA are not too far away. A solid week 4 could change things up big.
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. At this point I’d like you to know there’s a trophy we have for the last place team. I’ll start shining it up for y’all 😉

I’m still leaving this here because competition gets fierce!

Yes, the Team League is a competition. BUT I do want to remind everyone this is for fun, and it’s meant as a way to encourage us to be more mindful of how active we may be in a day. Many of the groups here are nonprofits or government agencies, and it may not always be built in for us to focus on our health. Let’s do our best to use this challenge to think of how we can incorporate health into our daily schedules!

#walkthewalk

Updated: February 15, 2019 at 6pm

Okay so week 2 is where #walkthewalk gets reaalllyyyy interesting.

BTW if you haven’t already, join our Facebook group to hear about the latest updates, events to get some steps, encouragement, and of course…smack talk!

Individual League

We started this league with 20 folks, and now we are left with 17! Congrats to everyone who keeps striving for the 50,000 steps each week! Combined step total this week was 1,131,029!

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, combined with steps from week 1 that’s a total of 1,135 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Topeka, Kansas!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 2

• Cheers to Bhavika P. who upped her steps by 11%, and shared with us her secret technique of pacing around the office during phone call meetings!
• Cheers to our increase of participants who walked at least 70,000 steps. We went from 5 in week 1 to 9 this week!
• Cheers to a few walkers who majorly upped their step game; Jenny Z. (42.69% increase), Kevin L. (32.28% increase), and Colleen O. (15.61%).
• Jeers to sidewalks that aren’t made for pedestrians.

Team League

First off…to all those who are trying to bribe me for intel on other teams with popcorn chicken and boba…nice try! It always seems to happen after week 1 of this competition 😉

ANYWHO…major shakeup in week 2. Repeat after me. DE. THRONED. Sorry LURN, but your valiant effort of 140,382 steps average this week was surprisingly NOT enought to take the top spot.

Props to JACCC for showing a glimmer of their amazingness that took Walk the Walk by storm last year. It may be too little too late…and maybe time to start cleaning off the Golden Wok so we can give it to this year’s winner?!

Is it a battle amongst JACCC, Investing in Place, and Visual Communications for the 3rd place spot? I never expected a team to get 140k steps in a week, so I’m ready for any kind of surprise at this point!

Enough babble! Here are the numbers!

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 2

Congrats to ActiveSGV for bringing glory to the San Gabriel Valley. With a whopping 144,581 steps, they have dethroned LURN, at least for week 2! (see overall rankings below)

Of special note: they have a team of 9 people and as you know…getting a high step average with a larger team is no easy task, esp compared to LURN’s team of 6. Big victory. Big kudos.

When I asked ActiveSGV if they had anything to say to their rival, LURN, they shared:

Don’t @ us if y’all ain’t ready.

David Diaz

This may have something to do with the smack talk going on between the groups throughout the week (see below). #smacktalk

Overall Rankings

A few notes on week 2 results: 

• Amongst our 25 teams, only 24 teams submitted steps this week.
• In overall ranking, only 1,033 step average separates LURN and ActiveSGV!!!
• In overall ranking, only 663 step average separates JACCC and Investing in Place!!!
• Compared to week 4 of 2018’s Walk the Walk, this group of teams is averaging much higher steps. Last year the average was 66,578. This week teams combined for an average of 74,313.
• Of the 24 teams who submitted, the teams combined for a total of 197 team members who contribued 15,116,469 steps! This is an 11% increase from our steps from week 1! If you count 2,000 steps to roughly be 1 mile, our combined steps would take us from Los Angeles to Cairo, Egypt!
• Our top 10 teams are averaging at least 70,000 steps, which is the recommended weekly step count by the American Heart Association (who are a little shy of that 70k!).
• Props to KYCC (49.96%), T.R.U.S.T. South LA (Tenemos que Reclamar y Unidos Salvar la Tierra – South LA)(44.32%), and LA Neighborhood Land Trust (39.66%) for the highest percent increase in steps from Week 1 to 2!
• Props to First 5 LA for their solid 6th place performance the past 2 weeks, with a team of 18!!!! You read that right…18!!!!
• In our Battle of the Walks, LA Walks still leads CA Walks by quite a bit. This week LA Walks had a higher step average (79,469) than California Walks (52,171).
• If you take a look at the overall ranking, there’s a battle also going on for 10th place. Does So Cal Edison have the…energy….to stay in 10th place ahead of Advancing Justice – LA and API Equality – LA?
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. Still no word. Y’all okay? I’m worried!

Another reminder! Yes, the Team League is a competition. BUT I do want to remind everyone this is for fun, and it’s meant as a way to encourage us to be more mindful of how active we may be in a day. Many of the groups here are nonprofits or government agencies, and it may not always be built in for us to focus on our health. Let’s do our best to use this challenge to think of how we can incorporate health into our daily schedules!

#walkthewalk

Updated: February 11, 2019 at 12pm

And we are back for another year of Walk the Walk, aka finding new ways to squeeze steps in whenever possible! It’s only the end of week 1 and I have heard some interesting ways folks are upping their step game (especially in the rain). Drinking more water so there are more walking trips to the bathroom, parking cars at the far-end of parking lots, walking in place while watching movies at home…ya’ll are creative! I’m excited to see what happens as we get through this month.

BTW if you haven’t already, join our Facebook group to hear about the latest updates, events to get some steps, encouragement, and of course…smack talk!

Now…let’s do the numbers!

Individual League

Of 20 total participants in our individual league, 18 turned in their step count in for week 1. Of those 18 who turned their steps in, 15 reached at least 50,000 steps for the week. Combined step total this week was 1,140,802!

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, that’s a total of 570 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Salt Lake City, Utah!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 1

• Cheers to Cassy H. who returns to Walk the Walk from her stellar 2018 performance. Adding in her steps from this week with last year’s numbers, she is averagine 94,303 steps!
• Jeers to rain for making it hard to get steps in this past week.
• Jeers to forgetting to wear fitness trackers.

Team League

So last year was our first time trying a “Team League.” 15 teams entered, and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center dominated for 4 straight weeks and took home the legendary GOLDEN WOK. Their team of 6 averaged 106,543 steps over the entire month, 20,000 steps ahead of last year’s 2nd place winner Investing in Place.

Well…2019 is a new year and the game has changed folks. 106,543 steps isn’t going to get you a first place finish. In fact, it’ll get you only a THIRD place finish by this year’s step count so far.

What are you babbling about Scott?!?

Basically what I’m saying is that JACCC has been dethroned!! A few teams showed up big time to prevent them from taking the top spot for a 5th week in a row (when combined with the 4 weeks of 2018). What happened JACCC…WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 1

Congrats to the dope folks at LURN for taking the top spot. Folks may not know this, but last year their fitness trackers did not come in until week 2. If they had their fitness trackers for week 1…could they have possibly taken the 2nd place spot from Investing in Place??

When I asked LURN what their secret was for this explosion in steps…the response I received was:

We’re just living our best lives! We didn’t even have treadmill desks or anything! Keepin’ it old school.

Rudy Espinoza

128k team average in steps is no joke my friends. Big props to them for stepping their game up and taking that number one spot. To our friends at ActiveSGV…dang that was close. This is their first year in our challenge, and they came ready. Long walks IN the rain, museum trips together…they had a game plan. But alas, they just weren’t active enough to take 1st place. LURN, I’d watch out for this group; they’re hungry for it.

A few notes on week 1 results: 

• Amongst our 26 teams, only 24 teams submitted steps this week.
• Of the 24 teams who submitted, the teams combined for a total of 197 team members who contribued 11,901,688 steps! If you count 2,000 steps to roughly be 1 mile, our combined steps would take us from Los Angeles to Seoul, South Korea!
• Of our 24 teams, our average step count was 60,415.
• Did you know we have both LA Walks and California Walks in this competition? As of this week, LA Walks has a higher step average (75,152) than California Walks (45,430).
• There are quite a few environmental groups involved this year, including Friends of the LA River, The Wilderness Society, LA Neighborhood Land Trust, Trust South LA. Let’s keep an eye to see which group can up their step count above the others. 🙂
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. Where you at?? The 26th District has some really lovely places to walk!
• Also I just want to put this out there…can First 5 LA finish in the first 5 spots? You’re so close at 6th right now!

Yes, the Team League is a competition. BUT I do want to remind everyone this is for fun, and it’s meant as a way to encourage us to be more mindful of how active we may be in a day. Many of the groups here are nonprofits or government agencies, and it may not always be built in for us to focus on our health. Let’s do our best to use this challenge to think of how we can incorporate health into our daily schedules!

That’s it for this week folks. Remember to turn in your Week 2 steps by 12pm on February 15th!