The people who run the Georgetown Canal have noticed you’re getting fat, and they’ve come up with a solution: guided walking tours of the canal, with prizes. You can wreck the process, though, by cheating like a fiend.
You see, prizes are awarded to whoever walks the most miles, but the score is based on an online spreadsheet. There’s nothing keeping you from winning the tennis shoes, park service badge, or whatever they’re handing out. [Ed. note: I don't trust Will as far as I can throw him]. I doubt this guy will be waiting for you at the end of each 30 minute walk.
If robbing senior citizens of their plaudits isn’t your thing, marvel at the canal administrators’ loose definition of what it means to “walk” something. If you walk all 7 weeks, you’ll have walked 185 miles. That means big things, apparently: “Why 185 miles? The C&O Canal NHP actually runs 185 miles from Georgetown all the way to Cumberland, MD. If your team walks 185 miles in the next seven weeks, you can say you walked the entire Canal!”
That seems like a gross exaggeration of your achievement. I’ve swam a good amount in my life, but I don’t say I’ve swam the entire English Channel.
-Will Sommer, blog editor. Flickr photo from user Absolutwade
Entries (RSS)
What struck my eye from the contest’s website was this little tidbit:
“A variety of prizes will be awarded—most miles walked by a five-person team, highest average miles walked by a team (to make sure everyone is walking!), most miles walked by an individual, and so on.”
I don’t want to be nitpicky, but I have to point out that awarding a prize to the team with the highest average miles walked doesn’t make sure everyone is walking.
For example, if Will and I are on a team together, and we each walk five miles, we’ll have the same average as if, being the more athletic and muscular of us both, I walk ten miles and Will doesn’t walk at all.
Still, this doesn’t amount to much if people take Will’s suggestion and fudge their spreadsheet. Honor code, schmonor code.
[...] Canal walk promises exercise, moral hazard. Vox Populi [...]