Winning a walk in the park | Northland News | Local News in Northland

A Northland fitness programme not only stepped up to the mark, it set the pace at the inaugural national Golden Foot New Zealand National Walking Awards.

The 10,000 Steps Northland programme has won the Living Streets Aotearoa award for the country's best recreational walking programme.

The Sport Northland programme's facilitator Janine Moy said the organisation was "absolutely stoked" to receive the award.

"We were up against some very good promotions and, according to the judges, our category was very highly contested," she said.

Northlanders have literally pounded the pavements and chalked up thousands of kilometres as part of the easy-step programme.

For the next two months participants can go even further if they take a new virtual challenge - to Machu Picchu. The virtual challenges designed by the Northland team are at set distances and can take up to 4 weeks to complete. Individuals can log their own progress according to their own pace. A virtual walk from Kaitaia to Russell is 175,000 steps based on an average adult step of 0.8m, or 140km which is about 6250 steps a day over the 28-day challenge period.

Tools used to motivate people to step out in the real world include chalk stencils of feet that mark footpath routes regular walking groups follow, and pedometers - sensors as small as a matchbox that clip onto clothing and count the steps people take in a day. People who do not have a pedometer can use the calculation that 10 minutes of continuous physical activity equals 1000 steps.