Date achieved:
Saturday 20th March 2021
Where?
Various locations around Melbourne
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
I remember when I had my very first Fitbit and I was coming back from a holiday from Anglesea one day, my watch was in a cup holder and it must have been shaking the watch the entire time and by the end of the day I had apparently walked 50,000 steps. Now I knew that I had definitely not done that many steps and it felt like cheating to still be rewarded as Fitbit put a streamer display on the app and sent me an email presenting me with a badge and saying that I’d reached a milestone of 50,000 steps in a day. I couldn’t believe I had this award and that I hadn’t even put the effort in so that is why I decided to add it to the Challenge List as I was determined to actually complete this challenge the right way by taking all 50,000 steps in 24 hours.
Description:
Attempt #1 - Saturday 14th November 2020:
Being the first attempt, I figured if I just walked a lot and for most of the day then surely I would just reach the 50,000 step goal. I couldn’t have been more wrong, I walked several kilometres and for quite a few hours and even took the long way instead of shortcuts. I walked to get lunch, I convinced my little sister to go for a walk with me and the dog and whenever I could pace and get a few bonus steps I would. The steps just didn’t seem to be adding up as much as I wanted them to and by the end of the day, I only reached 26,101 steps. Don’t get me wrong that is a pretty solid first attempt and I was impressed that I could make it over halfway but it meant that the next attempt would need to do a bit more planning.
Attempt #2 - Saturday 20th March 2021:
The second attempt took a bit more strategic planning and I decided to follow the trail of the UooUoos that the Royal Children’s Hospital had put out to celebrate their 150th anniversary with these UooUoos being placed throughout Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs. My cousin decided to come along for the journey and find all 100 UooUoos with me in a day. So with the RCH app to find the Uoo Uoos and 50,000 steps as the goal, surely this challenge would be a walk in the park…
Firstly, at around 7:00 am my cousin and I went for a walk and met halfway and then walked around a few parks and this walk continued for 40 minutes. We got to wach the sunrise over the local park.
Then we went back to my house and started driving to Geelong as there were 10 UooUoos there and it would be easy to mark them off all at once. When we eventually arrived in Geelong it turns out the building that was housing the UooUoos was difficult to find and when we eventually did find it it was closed until later that day.
Thankfully, we could see the UooUoos through the window to get the codes to log that we had seen them on the app and take their photos. These are the ten UooUoos I found in Geelong.
'Belonging to Matter' by Emily Walters
'Blossom' by Alison White
'Trees, birds and us' by Camilla Eustance
'Fish Forest' by Mike Makatron
'Geelong my home' by Lauren McDonnell
'Pixo & Pixa' by Laine Hogarty
'Tuoo Face' by Scott Stuart
'UooLoola' by Ilanit Gros
'Untitled' by Ghostpatrol
'Forest turtle' by Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki
After getting all the photos of the UooUoos we found that one of the tyres on my car needed pumping up with air and after that, we were on our way to Williamstown Botanical Gardens where we found the UooUoo called Cosmic Imagination, which is also where they had tents setup to showcase what Surf Life Saving Victoria does and the importance of them being around. We spoke to a few people at the tents briefly and drove to the pier in Williamstown. We walked past the Williamstown Navy ship museum and headed towards the pier where we found another UooUoo called Intergalactic.
Would I do it again?
Look this was definitely an endurance challenge physically and mentally, to keep myself going through the day to get the required amount of steps and to not give up!
I believe now that this challenge has been completed I have no intention of completing it again, once was definitely enough. Unless I participate in a charity organisation such as Relay for Life, which is continuous walking for 24 hours.
Highlight:
“It’s not the Destination, it’s the journey.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I feel as though this quote really is quite accurate for this Challenge, I had the goal of 50,000 steps but the journey getting there was incredible. I went to so many new places, met new people, and saw things that I wouldn’t have seen if hadn’t chosen to complete this Challenge on that particular day. I saw the African Beats drummers and giraffe in Newmarket, I also came across a beautiful Newmarket Fridge Library where it had the take a book, leave a book philosophy.
I am very grateful that I got to share this experience with my cousin, for the company along the way and we went on the quest together to find the UooUoos and walk the 50,000 steps it was definitely a journey I will never forget!
I am extremely proud of myself for reaching the 50,000 steps in a day, it was equivalent to just over 35km. I was a little skeptical that I was going to finish the challenge when I had only just under 9,000 steps at 1pm or that when I was home at 10:20pm I had 40,000 steps. I am so grateful that I was able to reach my final goal by the end of the day! Below is how the day tracked with the steps.
Cost:
Most of the costs of the day were the Myki and the petrol. We had a little bit of a treat at Gourmet Kitchen with the strawberry dessert and we ate out for lunch. So the day would have cost approximately under $60.
Further information:
I would highly recommend training or at least building up your fitness level of endurance because I didn’t and my leg started to play up at 17,000 steps and was sore for the entire rest of the day walking. Also for the following three days I was really sore and struggled to walk but I eventually did recover, it just would have been better with a warm-up and practice.
This is the map where we went over the entire day, according to Google maps we drove 216km over 3h 51m and was on a train 15.8km which was 37m. We found 58 UooUoos out of the 100 to find and I walked 50,130 steps in a day!
