Maryborough’s Jenny Gunn walked almost 2000km during the 16 week-period from May to September – and that was just in the course of her daily life.
Mrs Gunn was one of 250,000 people from around the world who took part in the annual Global Corporate Challenge which is a pedometer-based walking challenge where employees engage in a virtual walk around the world.
Her team, the Trekkies from the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Fraser Coast, ranked 907th out of 18,153 teams worldwide. The team was made up of USQ administration, student services and library staff: Judy Hawkes (team leader), Rachel Peate, Brenda Strachan, Jane Mackin, Janet Cochrane and Casey Millward.
The university fielded 41 seven-member teams from across its three campuses, including three from the Fraser Coast campus in Hervey Bay.
Between them the USQ teams walked the equivalent of 5.8 times around the world, a distance of 230,445km. USQ ranked eighth most active team worldwide in the Education and Training corporate employees section.
The Trekkies ranked first out of the USQ entries as the most active team. Their members walked a combined total of 13,496,151 steps, which is the distance from New Zealand to Mutnovsky Volcano in Eastern Russia.
Mrs Gunn, a USQ Fraser Coast careers counsellor and passionate triathlete, said participants were issued with pedometers to keep a tally of their steps each day. She had the highest personal daily step rate among Fraser Coast teams, which was 62,000 in a single day.
'It is quite incredible to think that our team walked to Russia,' she said.
'Participants entered their daily step count and could keep track of the virtual course on the challenge website.
'It was a really big commitment on the part of employers, too, because they pay $99 for each person taking part. Half of the fee is used to fund the entry fee of a child participant.
'So while there were 250,000 people taking part, about half of them were children.
'The challenge is a great way to get people to think about how much activity they do in a day and to improve their health and fitness levels.'
Contact Details:
Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media, +61 7 4194 3167
Tell a friend!
