The 7 Missions
Introduction
What is it ?
A new virtual team running challenge with a game-like concept that focuses on the fun of running together as a team, but also on pure athletic performances
When is it ?
11-17 January 2021.
From Monday to Sunday. Every day from midnight to 10 p.m. local time, except on the last day when all activity must end by 10 pm Singapore time (GMT+8).
Where is it ?
Anywhere you like. You choose the place where you aim to complete the day’s Mission. Can be treadmill or your living room, too.
For who is it ?
Anybody, anywhere in the world.
How can I take part in it ?
You need to get a team together of four runners. Choose a team name and a team captain/coordinator, and have him sign up the team via our online registration form. Mandatory gear: a GPS tracker and a big smile! Oh, and please do read the conditions of entry so there are no misunderstandings.
How do I win?
By taking part! … But joking aside, you can win The 7 Missions Challenge by completing all 7 missions in the fastest team time. Each day three of your four members need to finish. Score bonus time if you finish a Mission with all four members. Three categories: male, female and mixed. Oh, and by the way, the elite runners in your team can aim to win a separate points-based individual competition, too: the Cheetah Cup! And if you have a mountain goat, he could go for the High Trail 9 Peaks Trophy!
Schedule of The 7 Missions
Click on each Mission for details and news
Monday - Mission 1: 10 km
Tuesday - Mission 2: 5 km
Wednesday - Mission 3: 1 Hour Run For Bonus
Thursday - Mission 4: 5 km
Friday - Mission 5: 10 km
Saturday - Mission 6: 21.1 km (half marathon)
Sunday - Mission 7: 42.2 km (marathon)
The 7 Missions Latest News
Primary regulations & procedures
7 virtual race stages, called ‘Missions’, in 7 days from Monday to Sunday inclusive.
Teams of four runners
Categories: Male, Female and Mixed (a combination of 2 male and 2 female)
Run at home, run outdoors, run in your park, run on a treadmill or at any place convenient to you.
Each team must choose a name and assign a Team Captain who is the primary communication person for Race Control (RC)
Each team member must complete minimum 4 of the 7 Missions
Each Mission must be completed by minimum 3 team members in order to score a team time. The running times of the fastest three runners in a team will be added up to produce the team time.
Exception is Mission 3 - The Hour Race - during which teams run directly for bonus time as described in Detail 1 below
If only two or one of the team members finish a day’s Mission, it will be considered a DNF for the team on that day. This team will then get a time penalty of 15 minutes on top of the slowest finishing team time of that day
Runs must be a single continuous activity. In other words, it is not permitted to split up a mission into a morning run and an evening run and combine the times together. Elapsed time rather than moving time will be taken into account.
Bonus time will be given to teams who complete a Mission with all of its 4 members (see Detail 1 below)
A 15-minute Bonus time will also be awarded to teams, each time the team reaches an elevation gain of 500 hm. Only the data used for the daily team result (best three runners) will be taken into account
Team members are not required to run together, and may choose to run at own time and convenience. If team members run together, a picture immediately after finishing the run should be taken and submitted to Race Control (RC) as evidence they did run together
Participants can run at any time of day except 22:00 till midnight. The team captain must submit his team’s results of the day before 10 pm to Race Control.
In addition, each team member’s run must be logged by GPS device for verification purposes. Race Control will not accept any runner’s result without a log. We also recommend upload to Strava, and once a runner has an account to join “Club ATM” and “Sportlicious Malaysia” to faciliate cross-checking
Team members are required to comply with their respective countries Government Standard Order Protocol (SOP) for the prevention of Covid 19.
Winner of the ‘7 Missions’ competition is the team who finishes all 7 Missions in the fastest time. Teams who finish all 7 Missions will be ranked higher than teams who finish only 6, 5 or fewer Missions, regardless of their team running time
Cheetah Cup: separate points-based ranking for individual team members’ performances (see Detail 2 below)
Detail 1: Bonus Time Zone
Bonus time will be awarded each day to teams that complete a Mission with all its four members. This Bonus time reflects the race distance of that day’s Mission:
10 km = 10 minutes
5 km = 5 minutes
21.1 km = 21 minutes
42.2 km = 42 minutes
Mission 3: The 1 Hour Race = the team’s bonus time will reflect the distance run by the three fastest team members converted into minutes
Example:
Team Runner 1 runs 12.30 km
Team Runner 2 runs 14.60 km
Team Runner 3 runs 10.80 km
Team Runner 4 runs 11.50 km
The Team’s Mileage is therefore: 14.6+12.3+11.5 (fastest 3) = 38.40 km
38.40 km is converted into 38 minutes bonus time for the team
Note the rounding:
38.00 to 38.49 km = 38’ bonus.
38.50 to 38.99 km = 38’30” bonus
Elevation gain: each time a team reaches a plateau of 500m of elevation gain, it receives a 15-minute time bonus. Note that every day only the elevation data of the 3 fastest runners of a team, which makes up the day’s team time, is taken into account. (so, 3 runners going for a fast time on a flat road and 1 going up a steep hill won’t yield any bonus result)
Additional regulations & guidelines
When submitting a runner’s GPS file, the file should show minimum the day’s date, running distance and total running time ( = elapsed time).
Elevation during a run should be positive and not negative, i.e. a pure downhill run is not permitted
No submission of a team’s run before 10 pm will be recorded as a “DNF”.
Remember that Mission 7 on Sunday ends for everyone at 10 pm GMT+8 = Singapore/China/Malaysia time
Complaints must be addressed to Race Control no later than 24 hours after the alleged incident happened and should be argumented and - if possible - documented by evidence of alleged wrongdoing by someone or some team.
Note: If a complaint is deemed to be invalid by Race Control, the team of the person who launched the complaint will receive a time penalty of 15 minutes. This measure is introduced to protect RC from unnecessary overtime work in a week we will already be working almost non-stop.
Cheating: if Race Control deems proven that a runner or a team has cheated with its data, the team will be disqualified
Total result of each team will be updated daily on Asia Trail Master and Sportlicious Malaysia Facebook and Instagram pages and other social media channels.
The official daily result will be presented in a PDF file online after verification of all data by Race Control and may show differences compared to the shared Google Sheets. The shared Google Sheet is a working sheet and not the official result!
Detail 2: The Cheetah Cup
For the fast runners among the participants in The 7 Missions, we introduce a separate classification based on points: the Cheetah Cup!
Points will be scored in the categories male and female on the 5k, 10k, 1 Hour, Half Marathon and Marathon distances of The 7 Missions competition (= 5 exercises in total).
The points system is very simple: the Cheetah - the person who runs fastest or longest in the abovementioned exercises scores 50 points, and anyone else in the daily Top 15 gets points according to the table below. The runner who has collected most points after the marathon of Mission 7 wins the Cheetah Cup.
The Cheetah (1st place): 50 points
2nd place: 40 points
3rd place: 35 points
4th place: 30 points
5th place: 25 points
6th place: 20 points
7th place: 18 points
8th place: 16 points
9th place: 14 points
10th place: 12 points
11th place: 10 points
12th place: 8 points
13th place: 6 points
14th place: 4 points
15th place: 2 points
Note that runners cannot score points twice on 10k (Mission 1 and Mission 5) and 5k (Mission 2 and Mission 4). Instead, the best time of each runner of those two relevant Missions will be taken into account for the final 5k and 10k ranking on Thursday and Friday respectively.
This implies a runner who wants to win the Cheetah Cup can decide to skip Missions 4 and 5 if he/she is satisfied with his/her time ran on Missions 1 and/or 2. Up to him/her!
Alternatively, a runner can skip Missions 1 and 2 to see how other fast runners perform and use them as a target time on Missions 4 and 5.
Or.. a runner can just run everything (and help the team get bonus time for The 7 Missions competition!)
Detail 3: Mountain Goat Trophy , supported by High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju
Added to the 7 Missions event at the last minute: an elevation ranking for individual runners similar to the abovementioned Cheetah Cup. Runners of course need to belong to a team signed up for the 7 Missions team challenge. The Mountain Goat Trophy is supported by High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju, the great new mountain trail points race in South Korea that will enter the 2021 Asia Trail Master Championship.
The Mountain Goat Trophy ranking is based on accumulated elevation gain by each runner during the week of the 7 Missions
The required running distance of each Mission (or 1 Hour time limit on Mission 3) must be respected or the result will be a DNF and the elevation gain will not be taken into account.
Sweet reminder of primary regulation 9: “A 15-minute Bonus time will also be awarded to teams, each time the team reaches an elevation gain of 500 hm. Only the data used for the daily team result - its fastest three runners of the day - will be taken into account” . In other words, sending one team member off into the hills every day won’t yield any bonus as he/she is likely to set a slower running time than the three others who run a flatter course.
A special Prize for the individual Mountain Goat (male/female) will be provided by High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju
To be eligible for the prize, runners are required to make a short selfie video at a hill or mountain top and post on social media including hashtag #HIGHTRAILNINEPEAKSULJU #하이트레일나인피크울주 . In the short video, the runner can just express his feeling of having just reached a hilltop and express his support and/or expectations for the High Trail 9 Peaks Ulju event.
The man and woman who accumulate the most elevation gain over the entire duration of The 7 Missions event will win a free registration for the 2021 High Trail 9 Peaks event in South Korea with a Tour package (including local transportation from airport and hotel accommodation, but excluding flight)
Prizes
The list of prizes will be announced closer to the event date. At any rate, do not take part only for the prizes. This is meant to be an exercise for fun and honour.
Join the club on Strava
Disclaimer: The 7 Missions is a creation by Asia Trail Master for Kuai Sports Promotions, Ltd. All rights reserved.