ECU wins national walking challenge with 986 miles
East Carolina University students, faculty and staff put one foot in front of the other on their way to winning a national walking challenge in October.
Students play basketball in the Health Sciences Student Recreation Center in 2017. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
A total of 263 Pirates walked or ran a combined 986.27 miles in the virtual one-day contest on Oct. 3. It was the first time that ECU won the walking challenge.
“Each university that participated had the option to do it either in person or virtually. We decided to do it virtually,” said Dr. Katrina DuBose, coordinator of ECU’s Exercise is Medicine On Campus initiative (EIMOC) and director of the ECU Activity Promotion Laboratory in the College of Health and Human Performance.
Participants tracked the number of steps they took and recorded them using a QR code to add to ECU’s activity count. Everyone was entered into a drawing for free EIMOC T-shirts.
While many colleges and universities have EIMOC initiatives, seven universities participated in the event. Most were from the Big Ten Conference, DuBose said.
“This event occurs yearly, and the goal is to promote and support an active lifestyle among those who go to school and work on a college campus,” she said.
The group recently hosted an Exercise for PeeDee’s Sake event on Nov. 16 in the ECU Student Recreation Center, where students could play corn hole, can jam, spike ball, basketball and four square, take cycling, yoga or full body workout classes, or do simple movements like jumping jacks, lunges and squats.
“The event had different activities that students can do to be physically active,” DuBose said.
EIMOC has events throughout the year. Follow it on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.