I've been thinking of a fun new challenge for players both new and old; a Marathon. Here's how it works:
The game creator creates two characters, each with a different hearth secret. Anyone interested waits for word from the creator either on IRC or in the thread for that race. The creator signals the start by revealing the starting place's HS. The players all create new characters at that location, then the destination HS is revealed. All the players then kin and party with the destination character via secret, and set off.
The scale of this could be everything from short-range 30-minute hikes to odysseys from one corner of the world to the other. (In fact, with a full 7 grids, we would have roughly 9.9 multigrids worth of distance going diagonally.)
As for a reward, well, it'll be one thing to have won a marathon like this, but other rewards such as a basket of fish or a bundle of seedlings, would also be possible.
I'm going to try this out myself. Next time I get a chance, I'll start putting together a prize basket or something and start looking for a good course.