The walking shoes came out this spring. Staff on a number of the Johns Hopkins Health System campuses competed in the Race the Globe steps challenge, which pitted entities against one another to determine who would have the greatest steps average and the greatest percent of participants who reach the weekly steps goal of 70,000 all four weeks.

Throughout most of the competition the race was nail-bitingly close for the lead, but in the end The Johns Hopkins Hospital came out on top, with staff logging an average of 215,294 steps. Johns Hopkins Medicine International was also successful, having the highest percent of portal registrants reaching the step goal of 70,000 every week. Overall, the health system logged over 200 million steps over the course of the challenge.   

The top three performers for The Johns Hopkins Hospital—David Furukawa, senior systems engineer, Leslie O’Connell, clinical technician for radiology, and Maria Ronces Durante, nurse clinician—earned kudos for their steps. Redonda Miller, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Kris Lukish, the hospital’s vice president of human resources, and Richard Safeer, medical director of employee health and wellness for Johns Hopkins HealthCare, presented the employees with trophies at a ceremony on June 28.

Durantes describes how she turned her sedentary lifestyle into an active one. “I had shoulder surgery in late 2015 and was starting to feel depressed about my health. I began with simple exercises and started to run while recuperating from my surgery,” she says. “With the Race the Globe challenge, I tried to move as much as I could to achieve the most steps. At work, while waiting for my patients’ arrival and during break times, I took a lap within the hospital building.”

The challenge inspired Laura Grant, an associate in the JHHS Business Development Office, to start a walking group with colleagues. “We’ve set a standing time on Tuesdays and Thursdays and anyone who is available is encouraged to join,” she says.

Both Grant and Ashley Fenning, a senior associate in the same office, are wellness champions for the Healthy at Hopkins program and have organized several initiatives to get team members moving. Fenning says, “It can be hard to get to 10,000 steps in a given day when you’re at the office, but small things like parking at the back of the lot, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and taking short walking breaks can add up.”

Lukish, who also participated in the challenge, offered some tips on how to fit in more steps during the workday, which for her typically involves multiple back-to-back meetings. “I wear my pedometer to check on my steps and try to create opportunities to make walking part of my day,” she says. Taking short walking breaks when possible, even just to get coffee, and scheduling meetings at other people’s offices help her get in more steps.

For help adding in more physical activity to your routine, check out the “My Exercise” area of the Healthy at Hopkins portal, which can be found at my.johnshopkins.edu.