We are huge advocates of being active, keeping fit and allowing others to do the same within our schools on evenings, weekends and school holidays. Our love of fitness lead us to get heavily involved with National Fitness Day this year, which fell on Wednesday 25th September 2019.
National Fitness Day is a nationwide event, promoted as ‘a chance to highlight the role physical activity plays across the UK, helping raise awareness of its importance in helping us lead healthier and active lifestyles’. We invite you to find out more here – https://www.nationalfitnessday.com/
On the day we got ourselves involved and active with office breaks for rooftop yoga and table tennis, gym sessions and colleagues out leaflet dropping whilst getting thousands of steps in!
A huge effort from our staff on the day came from Tony Lock, who is known for getting stuck into just about anything. Tony came up with the idea to raise awareness for the importance of fitness by taking up a ‘Walking Office Day’.
The plan was to take his normally static office based day outside, walking all day and taking in some historic sights on the way. We weren’t sure how this ambitious plan was going to pan out true to his word, Tony stepped outdoors for a nine-hour day, seven and a half of it walking!
In total he walked 37km (that’s just over 22miles)!
We couldn’t be more impressed with his commitment to the day and for those of you who didn’t view it live on Twitter and Instagram here is a summary of his journey:
9am – Tony reached his first stop, Virginia Water. He took a call conference with our Senior Leadership Team whilst on the move and took in the first beautiful sight of the day.
10am – Continuing at great pace, 90 minutes into the walk he reached the University of London, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. It was during this hour that Tony had his first tea stop of the day before continuing his trek!
11am – Two hours in and he reached National Trust property, Runnymede. In his video update he showed us the sight of the signing of the Magna Carter as he reached 12km of his walking route.
12pm – 10miles in and 900 calories down, he reached High Street Datchet with the River Thames in sight and the sun was beginning to shine!
1pm – He made it to Eton College, to mark his half way point and took a well-earned lunch break.
2pm – His next check in was at the most famous landmark on his route, Windsor Castle. Still in fantastic spirits Tony was really embracing the day outdoors and the opportunity to be active.
3pm – As he walked the Long Walk from Windsor Castle through Great Windsor Park, he had an incredible sighting of a herd of deer just metres away from him. The whole scene felt very autumnal and gave him a fantastic boost of how amazing the outdoors can be.
4pm – The day might have been coming to a close, but Tony’s efforts did not dwindle, he kept the pace and marched on further to reaching 30km and Ascot racecourse!
5pm – At a staggering 37km, 7.5hours walking and 2,082 calories he made it back to where he started!
We were so impressed with Tony’s efforts for National Fitness Day. After a full day outdoors and on the move, he closed the day with a message of positivity and inspiration:
“Finished my walking work day, a total of 7 and a half hours walking and I’m back where I started 9 hours ago. Around 22miles and my legs are tired, but they will of course recover. The whole team at Schools Plus have been out being active today which is really pleasing, it’s been a wonderful day. Hope everyone had a great National Fitness Day but it’s not just about one day, keep it up UK and get active whenever you can!”
Tony Lock closing message at the end of National Fitness Day.
Thanks to Tony and all of our staff who made an effort to get active on National Fitness Day 2019. We were joined by over a staggering 2.1 million people who were also active on the day!
We’re already looking forward to National Fitness Day 2020!
