Kicked out of my company's wellness competition for being "too fit"

Too Fit wrote:

The memo we received from the sr leadership team said participation was mandatory.

That was dumb on her part to kick you out of a mandatory contest, but probably realized what a failure she is, which is true of all things medical.

They are all total BS and can hold no candle to real health and fitness.

Sue them

The person in charge is a b!tch. She could have politely asked you not to do the contest, but instead accuses you of cheating after you totally dominat everyone else. Some losers just can't deal with winners. Stand up for yourself and do what YOU think is right, I'm sure you're smart enough to make a good call.

My office had something similar to this a few years back, except they gave us this absolutely pathetic cheap pedometers that you clip onto your pants. You could shake it with your hand and it would count it as steps. The winner would receive like a $50 gift card to the local running store and like a half day off (or something similar). Contest lasted 6 weeks. Given that I am (arguably) the only higher mileage runner in my 500+ person office, I figured I had a legit chance to win.

At the end of the first week, I had run 75 miles and (assuming 2,000 steps per mile) had 150,000 steps. I got ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED in the numbers. The lady who was leading the contest, who I knew of (didn't work with her directly), had something like 312,000 steps in the first week. Possible, yes, but for a (at the time) probably early 40 year old lady with a couple of kids and some extra pounds (not obese, but definetely extra weight), I was highly suspect.

I knew right then and there that I had to not care at all because for me, being fit and in good health is an everyday thing. It's part of my life. I don't do just do it for a contest and then Week 7, Day 1 go back to binging on oreos and taking the elevator down 1 floor in the office.

The funny thing is, a few weeks after the contest began, someone from our wellness committee (who knew I was a big runner) asked me if I was participating. I replied back that I started to, but decided after the first week that the contest was complete bs and that if no one was going to monitor the legitimacy of the numbers, then the contest was flawed. I was asked what I meant by that and replied that "if you really believe that so-and-so is doing 300,000 plus steps per week, which is over 150 miles per week and has been doing so for the last 3 weeks, you are only fooling yourself".

You're now a Rossi wrote:

DiscoGary wrote:

Forget the prize. The bigger problem you have is that someone in your office thinks you're a liar and a cheat and is willing to be public about saying so. You're name is tarnished and your career could suffer. That's what you should be thinking about.

You have a big, big problem.

This. She didn't really believe you. You are now the Mike Rossi in the office. Sucks to be you.

Did Too Fit (Viral Wellness Competition Guy) cheat his way to the Wellness Competition Win?

Couple months ago I was running on the treadmill and a guy a few treadmills away was walking at 15% incline. In a few minutes I could hear him breathing pretty hard. Eventually he was gasping for breath and stumbled off the machine and collapsed on the floor for a few minutes to catch his breath. Thought that was pretty good because I don't see that many people push themselves that hard. Couple days later I happen to see on the chalkboard that the weekly contest is see how long you can go at 3.8 mph and 15% incline. Most contests are lifting related. That guy was probably the one who did 13 minutes and was in first place. Second was 8 minutes and 3rd was 6 minutes. I was actually going to just start doing a vertical K run once a week so I jumped on the treadmill and cranked it up to 15%. 3.8 mph was a little slow so I sped it up a little to actually be running. I pounded out an hour and won the contest pretty easily. Of course there were no prizes and my accomplishment was wiped off the board a couple days later but I keep looking for that next running contest so I can give it a go!!

Your the best of the hobby joggers at your gym.

You're = You are

The best hobby jogger wrote:

Your the best of the hobby joggers at your gym.

That would be "Your the best of the hobby joggers at you're gym". Moran.

You must be new here. You're first post. Welcome to the forums!

thejeff wrote:

You're = You are

You sure 'bout 'dat? UR not new hear, but you still don't have a clue about these forums. UR "duhjeff" after all.

sjgf wrote:

Sorry, marathon pace was about 16:50 per/5k! 5:25/mile!

Yikes someone can't do math. 17 high 5k. A minute faster say a 16:30 5k is 5:18 pace.

Clear violation of your 1st amendment right to enjoy a run. I would call the police.

This is one of the aspects of corporate wellness programs that is often overlooked.

In some cases the benefits go to people already doing the activity. For instance, gym memberships. Some companies pay the full tab and others subsidize it (you pay 20% company pays the rest). This is great if you already go to the gym, but it really is not addressing the folks who do not (and costs the company money that could be used more effectively).

Contests like this are the same thing if it does not get inactive people to be active (and to stay that way).

My take is that few wellness programs pay for themselves in terms of cost reduction in health care. I saw a documentary on a construction company in Arkansas that had great success. The numbers they gave out made it look like a success (from my quick arithmetic anyway). I suspect it is in the minority.

My story: I participated in a campus wellness contest when I was a college administrator. We got a point for every 20 minutes (or 30) of aerobic activity we did and another point for a weight training session. I was training for triathlon at the time and racking up lots of hours (15 per week was pretty common). I won the contest in a couple of weeks (it was to a set number). The next term there was a contest and I told the fitness center director (a friend of mine) that I would participate but only count my time in the fitness center for it.

You guys don't get it. There are plenty of people who have to do a lot of easy walking for their normal jobs.

We had something like that at my old job. It was already a pretty fit workplace (in California, there were a lot of lunch exercise groups with fast bike rides and a smallish running group too) and there was a daily max, but it was a very high daily max (like the equivalent of 3 hours of exercise or something, I was doing a lot of cycling at the time so I hit it a couple times a week).

I thought I'd do well, and I did do ok, but there was a slightly overweight woman who won. It turned out her job was literally to walk around the laboratory site all day and do deliveries or inspections or something like that. So anyhow, she crushed us all because her job required her to be on her feet all day.

The other thing I realized was that working in a lab caused me to do a lot of walking. I did all of my experimental measurements standing up and had to move around the machine all the time, go places to ask for help or build a new widget, move back and forth from the computer to the experiment, and so on -- so actually I often got the equivalent (in steps) of a couple hours' worth of running, just from doing my normal laboratory work.

My company's wellness program pays for bikes, GPS watches, etc. I already pay for a gym, I'd rather use the benefit to get new gear each year.

Positive Contribution wrote:

Yikes someone can't do math. 17 high 5k. A minute faster say a 16:30 5k is 5:18 pace.

Yikes.

17 high 5k = 17:45+

17 high 5k ≠ 17:30

Had the same thing happen to me. We introduced a similar program; those with fitbits (like me) submitted that data and those without were issued pedometers. (Not sure of the brand, but they were pretty nice.)

There were no specific rules about how you got the steps, just to log them each day and whoever had the most steps at the end of the 6 weeks, won. That was me, by a LONG shot. Of course all the coffee clatch walkers made passive aggressive comments to me and when the next competition rolled around I was asked not to participate. IN AN ALL STAFF MEETING.

Not a big deal since the prize is only a $50 gift card, but it upsets me that other runners in my company are still allowed to participate. For the record, it was summer and I had just completed a marathon so I was running very little. Kind of mad the contest didn't take place during training, that would have REALLY pissed some folks off!

Ask yourself, why do you care about being the fastest runner at your company?