Three months are left in the Nebraska 150 Challenge, and it looks like the Munroe-Meyer Institute team is going to run away with the title of No. 1 Team at UNMC.
It also may win a friendly side wager that Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H., dean of the UNMC College of Public Health, issued to UNMC deans and directors — the team that logs the most miles by the end of the year collects the winnings and donates it to a charity of their choice.
The MMI team of 89 staff members has logged 29,536 miles since the first of the year when the NE150 Challenge began as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. The campus took up the challenge in April.
“I sent out an email to the staff,” said Karoly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., MMI director. “They are a wonderful bunch, the best ever. A real team. They all work together. They endorsed the challenge from the first day. When I told them about the wager, they all became enthusiastic and said ‘No one is going to beat us.'”
Dr. Mirnics himself has logged 360 miles, but admits he is four months behind in entering and figures he’s up to about 650 miles. The MMI team has logged 29,574 official miles, but unlogged miles could put it over 32,000.
Logging the miles on the NE150 website seems to be an obstacle with many people.
“Our suggestion to the organization is to find a way to upload information from Fitbit or iPhone,” Dr. Mirnics said.
MMI has a comfortable lead now, with the closest team, College of Public Health, at 20,380. “I’m not surprised by MMI’s good show, but Public Health also has a pretty good team,” Dr. Mirnics said.
T-shirts available now
Employees on the UNMC team who have logged at least 75 miles can now pick up a NE150 T-shirt at the Center for Healthy Living.
Peter Pellerito, fitness specialist at the Center for Healthy Living, said that team members have until Oct. 2 to pick up the shirt they have reserved. After that, all sizes will be open to all team members who have completed 75 miles.
Through a grant from WELLCOM, a new walking map has been developed. Two signs will be placed on campus to show the routes and mileage. One will be placed at the Center for Healthy Living and a second on the west side of campus by the research towers.
“We’re optimistic that we will win. When we do, we’ll solicit ideas from the MMI staff on which charity to donate to, and we may even ask for ideas from the rest of the campus,” Dr. Mirnics said.
“I respect everyone who participated in this challenge. But, I have to say, come on guys. Is this the best the College of Pharmacy can do? I expected more participation from the bigger units that should have blown us little guys away.
“An important lesson I took from judo is that we’re all winners because we’ve participated and learned something. We make each other better by challenging and encouraging each other. The goal is to move more.”