Mayor Gardner Walks 135 miles
Last October Council’s Mayor Bruce Gardner walked 135 miles in the Mayor’s Walking challenge put on by the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health. Each year Blue Cross puts on this challenge in the month of October and it is open to any mayor in Idaho.
The challenge is quite simple in terms of it’s rules. Mayors who wish to participate wear a fitness tracker and if they average at least 5,000 steps per day they earn $500 for their city. If they average over 10,000 steps per day they earn $1,000. These funds need to be used for programs and activities that promote physical activity.
This was Gardner’s second year participating with his first right before the pandemic. He had both knees replaced in 2021 and this year he felt fit enough to tackle this challenge. He told me that he made the $1,000 award by the skin of his teeth with 311,454 steps in October, which equates to about 135 miles. Through the month of October he said he only missed one day of walking. He still was able to meet the challenge by making up miles on other days to increase his daily average.
He said it’s good exercise and it’s for a good cause and that he was happy to do it. He looks forward to doing it again next year.
This year the city of Council donated the award money to the Council School District.
By the way, to walk 135 miles in 31 days, you would have to walk about 4.4 miles per day.
