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Walk with us to the South Pole and beyond – our Step Count Challenge 2018 starts 30 April!

15 April 2018

Paths for All

We’re very excited in the Staff Wellbeing Team. Why? Well, we’re going to be trekking to the South Pole and, if all goes well and we make it that far, we’ll continue on to other amazing places and destinations. Well, sort of. We’re actually launching our first ever Step Count Challenge. There are five of us, so we’re a perfect fit for this team and workplace challenge, which has been developed by the charity Paths for All. May is National Walking Month, so it’s good timing.

I’d really like you to join us on this adventure. I love walking and know it’s good for me. It’d likely be good for you too.

A team challenge

You’ll need to enter a total of five people. You’ll also need a commitment to walk and count your steps for the eight weeks of the challenge. You choose a team captain, pick a team name – we’re currently ‘The Wellbeing Walkers’ – and then contact us to express your interest. Once you’re registered – and please note that places are limited – you’ll get a user account where you record your daily steps, share comments with your team and track your team’s progress on our leaderboards. Each member of your team will be sent one of our Step Count Challenge badges, which you can use to let people know you’re taking part.

You count your steps using a pedometer or your favourite app or gadget. The Staff Wellbeing Team, along with Paths for All, will help set goals to provide your team with motivation and challenges to keep you walking. At the end of the challenge there will be prize draws for all the teams that complete.

As well as other Cardiff University teams, you’ll be competing against other organisations.

Benefits

Walking is good for you, business and the environment.

Here’s why:

  • Walking is free
  • It easily fits around busy schedules
  • You can do it at work
  • You can do it at home
  • You don’t need special equipment (or lycra)
  • You can do it with friends and family
  • It’s safe and low risk
  • Did I mention that it’s free?

And did I mention a prize draw for teams who complete the challenge?

Registration

Email staffwellbeing@cardiff.ac.uk telling us you’d like to register your team. Once registration is confirmed – again, places are limited – we’ll send you everything you need.

I said earlier that I’d really like you, and four of your colleagues, to join us on this walking adventure. I’d love to meet up with you during the eight weeks whilst doing something fun and good for us.

Think about the difference these eight weeks could make to you and your team. Stop for a moment and imagine how you might feel at the end of the challenge if you were able to commit and follow through. What might be different?

Remember, you won’t be doing this alone. We’ll be walking with you, supporting you and cheering you on throughout the eight weeks. You’ll also have your captain and your colleagues.

Or maybe you’d like to be captain and do a little bit more of the supporting others?

Whatever your motivation, take part. Join the challenge. Walk for wellbeing. Together.

Apps

You may already have wearable tech, a Fitbit, Garmin, Apple or other watch or bracelet, that works, but a simple pedometer, which can cost as little as a few pounds, will also enable you to track your steps. If you have a smart phone, check out what’s available in your app store – both iOS and Android have lots of apps and most are free. Play with two or three to find out which one suits you best, then familiarise yourself with the one you’ll use for the challenge. IPhones running on iOS 8.0 or higher have a Health app that counts steps as standard.

The British Heart Foundation have a handy guide to 7 free walking apps, which you might find interesting.

Images by Paths for All.


Comments

2 comments
  1. Chris Graves

    “The Staff Wellbeing Team, along with Paths for All, will help set goals to provide your team with motivation and challenges to keep you walking” – any heads up on what these are? The range of goals?

    • Keith Lynch

      Hi, Chris.

      Some of these will be provided by Paths for All, and are not yet know to us. We, the Staff Wellbeing Team, will be looking to help with keeping participants on track, over the course of the eight weeks. We’ve got a few ideas that we’d like to reveal later on (something for participants to look forward to), but we’re going to look at a photography competition, encouraging staff to capture their walking moments. We’ll be using Twitter to support this. We’ll also be organising some meet-ups, on both campuses, to offer participants a chance to meet each other and walk together. We’ll try to theme these walks.

      We also hope to have a few prizes and ensure that these are available to all participants, not just those with the most steps. We’ll be giving out information about walking, helping participants learn about the health and other benefits of this activity, how to get started and continue.

      One of our biggest motivations, I hope, will be trying to accrue enough steps, as an organisation, to reach the South Pole. If we get there, we’ll look at our next destination. Who knows where we might end up!

      I hope this helps.

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