Take the #52 Walks Challenge to Stay Moving and Connected All Year Long!

The 2023 Healthiest State Annual Walk is over, but the message on the importance of staying active and maintaining social connection with friends and coworkers carries on year round. If you are looking to stay moving and connected, Emily Abbas, EVP, Chief Consumer Banking and Marketing Officer at Bankers Trust has shared a look at her #52WalkswithFriends challenge top give some structure to your goals!

The concept is simple. Once a week, for 52 weeks, take a friend, coworker, acquaintance, etc. on a walk 1 on 1 wherever you can. Whether that looks like a few laps around the mall in the winter, or a stroll around downtown in the summer, just get active and chatting! These walks can replace your coffee shop meetups and happy hours to instead fit in physical activity. If you are interested in tracking your progress, you can even consider following Emily’s example of posting a photo from each walk on social media with a paragraph about the walk!

Interested to learn more? Emily offered insight into the structure she followed, where she walked, and what she took from the challenge below:

Q: What inspired you to take on the 52 walks challenge?

A: The idea of #52WalksWith Friends came from a friend Tracy Codel. She walked with a new person each week during the pandemic and I was lucky enough to walk with her. At the end of the year, she hosted a luncheon with all of the people she walked with. I was so inspired at that point, I decided to do something similar.

Q: Did you always get one walk in a week? What structure did you follow?

A: My goal was to get 52 walks in over 52 weeks. While I tried to make sure there was one every week, scheduling didn’t always work out that way so there were a few weeks with two walks and a few weeks with none.

Q: Walking routinely is obviously good for your wellbeing in itself, but did you notice any impact on your physical and social health as well?

A: When friends or coworkers reached out to me to schedule coffee or happy hour, I suggested a walk. I have to think that redirecting that time to walking and connecting outdoors had positive impacts.

Q: Would you recommend taking this challenge to others and what tips would you give them?

A: I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who ask me if they can copy the idea. Certainly I encouraged them to. If someone is considering, I would say do it! Come up with your own rules and guidelines that work for you vs. using mine. Set a goal and then accomplish it – it feels good!

Q: What was your favorite part of doing these walks?

A: My favorite part was having 1-1 time with people I either wanted to get to know better or with people I already cared about and needed to catch up with. I realized that I don’t make the effort on a regular basis to spend in-person time with the many people I would like to, so it has to be intentional.

Q: What are some of your favorite or most interesting places you walked?

A: I always let the person I walked with choose where we walked and for how long. Gray’s Lake was by far the most popular location. Others were in neighborhoods, around the Drake campus, downtown, Valley Junction, on trails, Racoon River Park, Terra Park, Saylorville, the Las Vegas strip, the Iowa State Fairgrounds and more. On one really cold day we walked in Jordan Creek Mall. Several walkers brought their dogs along.

Q: Did the walks help you connect with friends, coworkers, etc. in the short amount of time you had with each person? What was it like connecting with that many people 1 on 1 over a walk?

A: Absolutely! It is something I miss now that the 52 weeks are over. This is a great reminder for me to get back at it and make this part of my every day life vs. a one-year challenge.

Q: What did you learn or take with you from doing the challenge?

A: I learned that setting time aside to connect with people you don’t get to see every day is important. I started with a list of people I wanted to reconnect with, but after I posted online about my first few walks, I had so many people reach out asking if they could walk  with me that I had a list! While the walks took about an hour each week, they ended up being my favorite hour of the week.