There are going to be a lot more people hitting the pavement over the next six weeks.
Elmira’s Programmed Insurance Brokers (PIB) has started its second six-week walkathon for its 200 employees. The first walkathon was held four years ago.
“This is the perfect time of year to launch our walkathon,” said Heather Aguira, chair of the wellness committee at PIB. “Walking is something that is so easy to do and our program is very easy to stick with and as long as you make it a part of your daily routine it is a hard habit to break.”
The overall goal for PIB employees is 10,000 steps a day which is equivalent of walking 10 kilometres.
Every employee was given a pedometer and a log book to keep track of daily walks.
“If everyone makes the effort and walks either in the morning, lunch or evening their steps will really add up,” said Aguira.
Every employee has been assigned to one of the 25 teams with the incentive of winning weekly prizes. As an additional incentive each week the committee will choose a destination city and will find out the number of kilometres that city is away from PIB. The committee has determined that it takes 1,000 steps to walk a kilometre so if an employee’s total steps for the week match the distance from PIB to the destination city their name will be put into a draw.
“It is an easy way to help our walkers visualize the distance that they will walk and it should act as a motivator as each week it will get more challenging as the cities become further away.”
The first week’s destination city is Guelph which is 30 km from PIB and Aguria expects that everyone involved will be able to walk that distance as it breaks down to 5,000 steps a day.
Aguira had tips for making the walkathon more comfortable.
“Stay hydrated, taking a couple of mouthfuls of water every 10 minutes should be enough to keep you hydrated while you walk.”
Aguria also said to start the marathon by walking for a short time and gradually extend outings. A start time of 15 minutes in the first week and increasing that by five minutes every
week will help walkers by creating a weekly goal and help them stay motivated.
The company encourages everyone participating to make their walk a workout, to stay active and be as healthy as possible.
