Trailblazers Movement Challenge
Trailblazers Movement Challenge
The Movement Challenge is a Trailblazers initiative to encourage a healthy and connected community through the use of area trails, streets, and pathways.
An evolution of Trailblazers’ National Bike Challenge, the Movement Challenge is an annual campaign, inviting residents of Northwest Arkansas to track their use of regional trails for recreation and transportation on Strava during May and September. Embodying Trailblazers’ Movement for All mentality, the challenge puts accessibility, inclusion, and encouragement at the forefront to engage all ages and abilities.
Participation is hosted through STRAVA. Individuals must create and use their account to add to the region’s totals and win prizes! Participants 14 and up can create a FREE account on Strava and join the Trailblazers Club.
The Movement Challenge aims to increase the use, number, and diversity of people using regional trails, streets, and pathways for recreation and transportation during Movement May and Cycle September.
MOVEMENT MAY
Trailblazers’ month-long challenge from May 1 - 31 encourages the use of regional trails by wheel or by foot, incentivizing participants and highlighting opportunities to try new activities. May encourages all types of movement, including rides, runs, walks, wheels, and skates.
CYCLE SEPTEMBER
Trailblazers’ month-long challenge from September 1 - 30 encourages cycling by motivating new riders, encouraging workplace participation, and incentivizing commuting by bike. September specifically promotes cycling activities.
Why you should join:
By joining the Trailblazers Movement Challenge Club on Strava, participants are offered a community and opportunities that encourage a healthy, active lifestyle. Club members who record activities, follow prompts, and complete the participant survey can win prizes and rewards. Active Strava members can build connections to new and old friends, find new places to explore, see events, and be encouraged to try new activities.
Why we host:
The Movement Challenge aims to increase the use, number, and diversity of people using regional trails, streets, and pathways for recreation and transportation. Data collected through Strava and Strava Metro is aggregated and reported to regional leaders and decision-makers to build a more inclusive, vibrant, and healthy community.
MOVEMENT MAY
Trailblazers’ month-long challenge from May 1 - 31 encourages the use of regional trails, streets, and pathways by wheel or by foot, incentivizing participants and highlighting opportunities to try new activities. May encourages all types of movement, including bike rides, runs, walks, wheels, and skates.
Included activities from Strava:
- Ride (commute, e-bike, mountain, gravel+)
- Handcycle
- Wheelchair
- Walk
- Run (trail run)
- Hike
- Skate (skateboard, inline)
CYCLE SEPTEMBER
Trailblazers’ month-long challenge from September 1 - 30 encourages riding bikes by motivating new riders, encouraging workplace participation, and incentivizing commuting by bike. September specifically promotes cycling activities.
Included activities from Strava:
- Ride (e-bike, mountain, gravel+)
- Handcycle
The Basics
Who can participate in the Movement Challenge?
Anyone living in Benton and Washington counties age 14 and older.
When users under 18 years of age create an account, their profile and activities are set by default to be viewable by followers only. Strava may also limit how they collect or process the personal information of individuals under 18 years of age.
How do I join the Movement Challenge?
- Signup with the participant survey
- Join the Trailblazers Strava Club
- Record an activity on an area trail, street, or paved path
Where can I participate?
Benton and Washington Counties
All trails, streets, paved paths, sidewalks, parks, and outdoor recreation facilities
Are you offering prizes or rewards?
Yes! Trailblazers will offer weekly incentives, social media-based promotions, and overall challenge rewards. New to walking, running, or riding? There will be reward opportunities for people participating at all levels and activity types. To qualify for challenge rewards, participants must have completed the Participant Survey. All winners will be drawn from the pool of individuals who have completed the survey. Overall category winners will be announced
Why the Movement Challenge?
Trailblazers (formerly BikeNWA) has hosted the National Bike Challenge since 2016 and Bike To Work Day activities for years before that. It proved to be a successful program, engaging thousands of participants each year and growing over 440% since using a registration system in 2018!
Understanding that the community uses trails and streets for a variety of activities beyond cycling, Trailblazers decided to evolve the program in 2024. And, Strava data shows that people record more activities on foot than on wheels, even in NWA! See more about why we moved the program to Strava below.
September will continue to be a cycling-specific challenge, encouraging the use of bikes for recreation and transportation; fun and purpose! Trailblazers knows that Northwest Arkansas has a thirst for bike-centric efforts and will continue to provide that as a part of the annual Movement Challenge.
With the Movement Challenge, Trailblazers can promote, increase, and track the use of trails, streets, and pathways for all types of activities. We also expand our reach in the community by including non-cycling activities and reducing barriers to entry to using trails.
Strava Highlights
Join the Trailblazers club and see the activities for yourself!
Strava
What is Strava?
Trailblazers is using Strava, a FREE phone app and website platform for tracking physical activities. With Strava, you can turn your phone into a cycling or running computer and track your progress, no matter where you are. It's super easy to use, and you can upload your activities by phone or manually on the computer. Plus, Strava supports over 30 different types of activities, so you can keep track of everything from running to rollerskating. Strava provides features that let you monitor your progress, explore new routes, and connect with others. It's a great way to maintain your motivation and develop fitness goals.
See more about Strava on their website.
Why did Trailblazers choose Strava?
Strava offers a great FREE phone app and website for the community to log their physical activities. It's intuitive, available in 14 languages, includes over 30 types of activities, offers social engagement features, supports commuting by foot or wheel, and connects to Strava Metro.
Every week, millions of individuals track their rides, runs, and walks on Strava using GPS devices or their phones. Extracting insights from its platform, which is the largest collection of human-powered transportation data in the world, Strava Metro seeks to enhance communities' bike and pedestrian friendliness. Strava and Strava Metro take their users' privacy seriously and aggregate the data while ensuring that any identifying information is removed. This ensures a vast wealth of valuable insights and trends while maintaining individual anonymity. Trailblazers, regional entities, and cities in Northwest Arkansas use Strava Metro to understand how and where people are moving, influencing decision-making.
What does privacy on Strava look like?
Strava offers a number of ways to customize your privacy settings and protect your data while still participating in clubs and challenges. Your profile page displays information about you much like Facebook, such as your name, activities, followers, photos, and stats. You can set your profile as public or private, choose your default settings for displaying activities, set how you interact with other users, and more.
For more details, visit Strava’s privacy page.
Support the Movement Challenge
Support the cultivation of a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable cycling community by joining Trailblazers and sponsor the Movement Challenge.
We are looking for a wide variety of partners. Contact Lauren Hildreth to discuss how you can get involved.
Testimonials
Mike Fall - "I ride because It gets me out from behind a desk over lunch!"
It's not just fun it's great for your health!
I first helped my office (Henderson Engineers- Bentonville, AR) with last years September bike challenge. I did not own a bike at the time and had to borrow a coworkers bike in order to get some miles in. I had not been on a bike since college, but I fell in love with it. Once the bike challenge was over I got lucky and was able to order a bike before the Covid rush. I had to wait for warmer weather to really enjoy my bike but now I leave it at work and try to ride at lunch as many days as I can as well as on the weekends. My weight and blood work have greatly improved as a side benefit!
New to riding or looking for resources?
If you are looking for resources to learn to ride or would be interested in a refresher course, check out Trailblazers’ Community Classes. It’s a great opportunity for adults to learn or revisit bike skills from the very basics in a fun and supportive environment.
Are there other resources you’re looking for? Reach out to Trailblazers at info@weaertrailblazers.org for more information or support! We’ll do our best to help.