Walking workers step up the pace

Community leaders are upping the ante for the 819 Bay locals signed up to the Global Corporate walking challenge, which is two weeks into the four-month competition.
Local MPs Chris Tremain and Craig Foss, mayors Barbara Arnott and Lawrence Yule, Sports Hawke's Bay chief executive Colin Stone, and from the DHB Kahungunu Hiko Whenua, Andre Le Geyt and director of Maori health Tracey Te Huia, form the seven-person team of community leaders for the worldwide walking contest.
Like other participants, they're hoping by monitoring their daily step count with pedometers they'll make a more conscious effort to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine.
It could be simple things like walking to appointments and taking the stairs, or like Mr Tremain, adding more sessions to his running regime.
Mrs Arnott said it was a challenge for the typical office-bound worker to find time in the day to clock up the recommended 10,000 steps. "It's hard finding the time. I still think only posties would do 10,000. You have to do something to get to 10,000. My best day was 23,000, but I walked almost all day," she said.
She expected to see "huge benefits" by the end of the 16-week challenge, while Mr Yule said he wouldn't mind losing a bit of weight and Mr Foss was keen to lower his cholesterol level.
Team captain Mr Tremain said they were keen to set a "high benchmark" for other local teams, although there was a competitive edge to their banter at the team meeting on Monday.
Local competition for the Global Corporate Challenge had taken a serious turn this year.
Last year, Heinz Wattie's was the only local business to enter the international workplace health initiative, and took out the national title.
This year, after plenty of goading, 18 other local businesses have taken up the challenge, with 117 registered teams.
The competition factor had seen some Wattie's participants dancing along to American Idol in a last ditch bid raise their day's step count and other employees were out striding in their lunch breaks.
The national leaderboard showed Bay teams from Unison and Heinz Wattie's had already put in a good showing, clocking up daily team averages over the 17,000 mark.
Though they still had plenty of kilometres to go if they were to catch the likes of a Christchurch team whose average was 27,209 after 13 days of competition.