27J Pedometer Competition Yields Great Results!
On Feb. 16, a small group of very motivated and competitive 27J employees embarked on a pedometer competition as part of a wellness pilot program being tested throughout the school district.
Using a high-tech pedometer called a “bi-axial accelerometer,” 24 employees – competing individually or in teams of two to five people – challenged each other to rack up the most activity time over a nine-day period. Unlike pedometers that clip to your clothes around your hip, the pedometers used in the competition attach to the shoe, store data for up to two weeks, and wirelessly upload to the user’s personal Web site.
That’s the easy part. The tough part: finding ways to increase step count and activity time throughout the day and catch that person or team in the lead!
Judging from the results, the competitors seemed to handle that challenge easily. In a nine-day period, participants racked up:
20,814 minutes of activity time – that’s 14 days worth of movement!
Walked 446 miles – crossing Colorado east to west 1.5 times
Burned up 48,819 calories – or 14 pounds of fat!
Top finishers were in motion four hours per day or more – that’s more than twice the national average. And top striders walked or ran between 10,000 and 12,000 steps per day – that’s five to six times the national average.
The top finishers are as follows:
#1 Overall Strider:
Tom Delgado
2,187 minutes in motion
#1 Individual Strider:
Dennis Riesel
1,544 minutes in motion
#1 Team
Rebels with a Cause (Rod Blunck, Tom Delgado, Shelly Genereux, Joan Kniss, and John Shea)
1,245 average minutes in motion
Congratulations to all participants! The competition may be over, but the pilot program continues, so keep on steppin’.
