Raven Rocks Run

The Challenge: Walk, hike, or run 100k during the month of November 2023. Distance can be done anywhere, the only requirement is that it be on your feet.

The Rewards:

• You stay active as the days shorten and the weather cools down.
• You can join our Strava Club to track your November progress and share with other challengers.
• If you are in the local area of the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, you can check out the Raven Rocks overlook which is on the Raven Rocks 10k Run course (and there are a pair of Ravens who live there that you might see if your timing is right!).
• You can earn badges as you unlock the various achievements we have set up.
• At the end of the month we tally your totals and send or give you a custom finisher “woodallion” with your name and badges and achievements (see image below) along with your shirt (if purchased).

Below are the badge images and names from last year and further down are the descriptions of the achievements. We are open to suggestions on adding more badges – especially if you are outside of the local Raven Rocks / Ward Pound Ridge area! Maybe an international badge if you run a Raven related course outside the USA!

Badge descriptions:

– Run 10k on the Raven Rocks Run course (raven badge)
– Run 5x 10k on the Raven Rocks Run course (ultra raven badge)
– Run 10x 10k on the Raven Rocks Run course (full flock badge)
– Take a selfie at the Raven Rocks Overlook and send it in (photographer badge)
– Submit a photo of yourself on a run with your “I Voted” sticker (bald eagle badge) or if you can’t vote in the election, next to someone with an “I Voted” sticker.
– Submit a photo of you running on Thanksgiving (turkey award)
– Photo of a raven anywhere (citizen award) (merged with traveler badge)
– Do a run in the dark to Raven Rocks (night owl badge)
– Do a run at dawn to Raven Rocks (cobweb crew badge)
– 200k distance in November (snowy owl badge)
– 300k distance in November (white raven badge)
– Read a stanza from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” poem and send us a link. Use SoundCloud, YouTube, Facebook, or whatever audio service you want. (wise owl badge)

New badges last year include the “Peeter Badge” named for Peeter Muursepp who during 2020’s Raven 100k Challenge did 33 loops of the 10k Raven Rocks course. Get 33 loops or more to earn the badge. Last year Peeter upped the ante with 62 Raven Rocks 10k loops during the month of November. That’s more than 2 per day! If you surpass it with 62 (or more) and the badge name changes to your name. But we think Peeter is safe since that is a huge number. Only 3 people have ever earned this badge.

Jacob Benesch proposed a badge last year for anyone doing 5x Raven Rocks 10k course in one day (50k total). We already have a badge named the Ultra Raven Badge (5x over the course of a month), so we named a new badge called “The Raven Rockstar Badge” which is shown on the sample above.

Let us know if you have any questions about the Raven 100k Challenge for November 2023 – email ravenrocksrun@gmail.com. Thanks!

See you on the trails!

….Rob, Ciorsdan, and the Raven volunteers