Icemen step to their own beat with 2007 walking challenge

Published June 22, 2007
By Jenni Osborne
354th Medical Group health education program manager

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- The Walking Challenge of 70,000 steps in seven days sponsored by the Health and Wellness Center was a great success.

Nine commands participated and 51 individuals turned in the final tracking sheet. Of those, 31 completed 70,000 steps - or more.

First place was Senior Airman David Walker with 112,179 steps. Second place was Master Sgt. Terry Patterson with 105,031 steps and third place was Susan Runyan with 104,908 steps.

Altogether, a total of 3,781,735 steps were reported for a grand total of 1,931 miles. This is the equivalent of walking all the way from Eielson to Yellowstone National Park.

Some of the comments we received on the tracking sheets were "now I try to get out and walk with my son every night," "I'm going to keep on walking" and "It wasn't as hard to get 10,000 steps a day as I thought."

Congratulations to everyone who participated and to those who are still trying to get their steps every day, great job. Next year Disneyworld!