Between Wednesday July 18th and Tuesday September 11th, Quest set out on our  2nd Annual Canadian Walking Challenge! Over 50 clients, community members, staff members and board members came together to see if we could collectively walk from Victoria, British Columbia to St. John’s, Newfoundland, a total of 8154 KMs (and 10,192,500 steps).

With up the wrap of the challenge last week, participants were eager to hear how we did. Thanks to the incredible efforts of participants, we once again blew out goal out of the water, reaching our goal by week 6 of the eight week challenge.

Collectively, we walked over 12,350 KMs (and over 15,440,000 steps), allowing us to travel through the capital cities of every province and prior to starting our journey to through the territories.  We were able to add Iqaluit, Nunavut to our list of stops and were less than 100 KMs from reaching Yellowknife, North West Territories.

Although we did not surpass last year’s total of over 13,700 KMs (and over 17,212,500 steps), we would have exceeded that target easily if we had the run the challenge for ten weeks as we had the previous year. On average,  participants were walking an extra 12 KMs per week compared to last year, quite a substantial improvement!

In addition to achieving our distance goal, we feel the challenge was also successful in building a sense of community among participants, allowing participants  to meet new people who share a similar interest and allowing participants to learn more about our beautiful and diverse country as we “traveled” across the provinces and territories.

We wanted to thank all of those who participated; your dedication, determination and passion for keeping active allowed us to surpass our goals once again. We look forward to keeping this tradition going next summer, until then, keep stepping!