Busy mum takes up virtual fitness challenge

Accountant and busy mum Rosie Orr is running one step at a time towards her goal of completing a 10 kilometre fun run in Napier on October 16.

Rosie is one of the many that have taken up the Sport Hawke’s Bay Virtual Challenge as a way of building up to the run which is one of the three distances of the Pak n Save Napier half marathon.

“I wanted some ‘me time’ and thought that running would be a perfect way of doing something alone.”

The accountant at Brown Webb Richardson says she embarked on her challenge after dedicating over six years to study, working and bring up children.

“At the start I couldn’t run 400 metres but I’m now up to 7 kilometres and I only have to increase that by 1km a week to get to the 10k target.”

Rosie also decided to boost her training by walking to and from work. “I’m feeling a lot better for doing regular fitness. I’ve got more energy and flexibility than I’ve had for a long time.

Rosie has also set her sights on running the Rotorua half marathon. She went to the event a couple of years ago to support some friends that were running and drew inspiration from their efforts.

“I was just sitting on the sidelines watching, so I’m now going to go back and run it.

The Sport Hawke’s Bay Virtual Challenge is a six week programme to help people prepare for participating in one or two upcoming events – the half marathon and the Strata Tour of the Bay cycling event.

Sport Hawke’s Bay Special Projects Manager Jeanette Cooper says the two events have shorter distances that people are being urged to give a go. The run distances are 5km and 10km and the cycling is 10km and 20km.

As motivation to achieve their target, all virtual challenge entrants can log their weekly training distances and have a chance of winning weekly prizes such as gym memberships and Shoe Clinic vouchers.

“This is a fun way to get into the habit of regular exercise and being active. The best way to get into exercise is to create a routine and that’s what the challenge enables. There’s a few incentives along the way with weekly prizes and then the satisfaction at the end of completing the big goal of the run and or the cycling event.”

The challenge began in early September, but people can take up the challenge at any stage over the next six weeks.

The virtual challenge is open to individuals and businesses. Napier printing business Brebner Print has taken up the challenge and has a large team participating.

MEDIA RELEASE ENDS

© Scoop Media