Could you hit each of the 31 Walk Franklin County spots, spread out across the entirety of the county?
One team that competed in the YMCA’s second annual Health Challenge step-counting competition, the Red Hot Chili Steppers, did just that.
It was a trek that took them through downtown Greenfield, the farms of Sunderland and as far out as the banks of the Deerfield River in Monroe, but it won them the challenge’s newest award.
“At first we wanted to go for most steps, but then as we checked the scores, we realized there were a couple teams that were ahead of us,” said Carol Lively of Rowe. “So our challenge was to try to do every single Walk location on that list.”
New Salem, which she walked by herself, was Lively’s favorite location, she said. It involved a 3½-mile walk through wooded dirt roads, amid swarms of deer flies.
“It was a little sketchy,” she admitted. “But it was nice to be out hearing the wildlife and turkeys, and it got me off the couch, for sure!”
“I did Monroe Bridge; no one goes to Monroe Bridge,” Lively’s teammate, Rachel Gamell said, noting that what was supposed to be a 3-mile walk with her dog ended up being a 9-mile hike. “I went half way out and half way back. If I did the whole thing, I’d still be out there now,” she laughed.
Members of the team noted that the walks proved a challenge for them at first, since many don’t regularly walk such long distances.
They used tricks, like parking farther away from a grocery store or work so they’d have to walk longer and amass more steps toward the challenge.
Gamell said she lost a total of 8 pounds over the course of the competition.
The team also took the Team Spirit award.
In all, the 26 teams took 57 million steps throughout the event, which ran from May 17 through June 27.
Bob Sunderland, the YMCA’s executive director, said the challenge rose from efforts to find fun ways to get people moving in healthy ways each day.
“We wanted people getting healthy and enjoying the outdoors, and to start educating people that a good goal to shoot for is 10,000 steps per day of activity,” he said. “The average American is only doing 5,000 because so many people sit at desks all day. To get 10,000, you have to make an intentional time to get up and walk.”
Sunderland said the health benefits of regular exercise include stress reduction, lowering risks of high blood pressure, and weight control, among others.
“All that comes into play with walking,” he said. “Heart health, brain health — it’s all connected.”
The top 10 teams were:
The Fitbit Fanatics with 3,918,783 steps.
#WeGotThis with 3,710,783 steps.
The Newtonians with 3,188,035 steps.
Rusty Bones with 2,955,257 steps.
Hot to Trot with 2,838,394 steps.
Red Hot Chili Steppers with 2,628,153 steps.
Sole Sisters 1 with 2,619,325 steps.
Sole Sisters 2 with 2,469,148 steps.
Mind Over Miles with 2,412,977 steps.
The Pedestrians with 2,394,461 steps.
Hot To Trot team member Ashley Mark had the most steps for a single person with 916,959.
Walk Franklin County locations and maps can be found at: www.walkfranklincounty.org/maps.php
You can reach Tom Relihan at: trelihan@recorder.com. On Twitter, follow @RecorderTom