Winning Warwickshire walker averages almost 15 miles a day
A Warwickshire County Council worker has averaged almost 15 miles a day as part of her normal life – making her this year’s top trekker in the West Midlands TravelWise Walking Challenge.
Alison Insley from Kenilworth joined more than 350 people taking part in last month’s regional competition.
And the libraries worker has come out tops in the Furthest Distance Walked Award category after clocking up 287 miles in just 20 days.
Alison said: “I wore my pedometer all the time, from when I got out of bed, to going to bed at night. I cycle into work in Warwick from Kenilworth, go to the gym, and run about eight miles a week, but the miles were all really from my normal activities.
“A group of us tend to go out quite regularly for lunchtime walks around Warwick Racecourse.”
And Alison’s group, know as ‘Ten Steps to Heaven’, came second in the Team Challenge Award, after walking 820 miles between them in the 20 days.
As well as the regular lunchtime group walks the ‘Ten Steps to Heaven’ team say they could have been helped along by fellow Warwickshire County Council workers Lisa Hoey and Carla Palmer heading off on holiday during the 20 days.
Lisa from Tamworth went for a week’s walking on the Yorkshire Moors and took her pedometer with her, while Carla took and wore her pedometer while on holiday in Rome.
They missed out on the winner’s award to ‘The Travellers’ from Coventry City Council who between them travelled 862 miles in the 20 days.
The winner of the Individual Challenge Award was Tori Tench from Wolverhampton City Council who walked 238 miles.
In total the walkers taking part in the West Midlands TravelWise Walking Challenge trekked the equivalent distance of Birmingham to Auckland in New Zealand and part of the journey back.
The original idea was for teams to walk the equivalent distance from the Angel of the North to the Tower of London without leaving the West Midlands.
Between them though, they clocked up just under 26 million steps, which equates to nearly 13,000 miles. Auckland is only 11,940 miles away from Birmingham.
The Challenge asked businesses to provide teams of up to 5 people or individuals who would count the number of steps they took in the working week during October. The aim was to encourage employees to walk more in their daily lives, including walking to work, walking to the shops at lunchtime, walking home from school with the kids or just running up and down the stairs at work.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “Walking is a fantastic way of getting your heart beating and getting fit without really changing your lifestyle at all. If you live within a mile or so of work you’ll probably find it’s quicker to walk than to sit in traffic and try and find a parking space.
Joanne Rainbow, TravelWise Co-ordinator at Coventry City Council, who organised the Walking Challenge, said: "This Challenge has really got people thinking about how far they walk each day and has encouraged them to walk that bit further. Hopefully most of them will keep up the amount of walking they have done as it will not only benefit their health, but also encourage them to make the switch from the car to walking or to public transport for those short journeys we all do like taking the kids to school to picking up the Sunday papers."
The event has been so successful that it is being repeated in 2008.