Walking from Perth to Broome is no easy feat, particularly when it’s done from your backyard.
This is exactly what a team of 10 from Traralgon Neighbourhood Learning House are doing as a part of the Latrobe Community Health Service Latrobe Workplace Walking Challenge 10,000 steps challenge.
A number of other teams from across Latrobe Valley workplaces are participating in the challenge as well.
Walking challenge participant and Trararalgon Neighbourhood Learning House adult education officer Julie Callahan said the team was aiming to complete 10,000 steps a day to complete the total distance.
“It’s a challenge to help workers get up and move around, particularly when they are working in sedentary jobs,” she said.
“We wear our Fitbits and we can sync them together.”
Ms Callahan said 2.9 million steps were required to complete the 2417 kilometre trek from Perth to Broome, with the challenge being to complete the distance within a month.
Now in their second week of the challenge, they’ve ‘reached’ Carnarvon.
“It’s become quite competitive, if someone disappears during the day they’ve gone around the block to get their steps us,” Ms Callahan said.
Challenge participant Maria Doganieri is in the lead with the most steps at the moment and said the best way to keep the number of steps up during the day was to do it in small increments.
“One thing that used to put me off walking was how long you had to do it for – it would be too cold or too wet to be out there for an hour,” she said.
“Now I’m only out there for ten minutes.
“I get up in the morning and I do 1000 steps. I’ve paced out circuits in my backyard.
“If I’ve been sedentary for an hour, I’ll get up and do 10 minutes.”
“I try to have at least 5000 steps by 12pm every day, so I usually end up doing more than 10,000 by the end of the day.”
Ms Callahan joked the team would continue “walking around the continent” once the challenge was over.
“We’ll see how long it takes,” she said.
“We hope to inspire people to get fit and have fun.”
