County agent challenges you to Walk Across Texas before holidays

WE CAN WALK 830 MILES - believers Cindy VanDevender and Jana Primrose are limbering up for the "Walk Across Texas" with a morning stroll around the pond at Sandy Creek Park. Newsboy photo/Sharon Kerr

Could you walk across Texas (830 miles) in eight weeks? That's 100 miles a week, but the Texas Cooperative Extension office who is sponsoring the Walk Across Texas gives you lots of ways to count your miles.

Thirty minutes of yard work can add up to 2.5 miles. Dancing for 20 minutes isn't just fun - it's another mile to log.

Biking, jogging, swimming, strolling and even your daily steps if you wear a pedometer can be counted. In fact, anything that "makes you breathe hard and sweat" can be added.

And you don't go it alone; teams of seven sign up for the competition. Cindy VanDevender, the family and consumer sciences agent, is registering families, co-workers, neighbors, and clubs. Teams should register by Sept. 12. The kickoff event will be Sept. 20.

Teams begin tracking miles Sept. 24 - Nov. 18, just in Nov. 18, just in time to get in shape for the holidays, according to VanDevender.

She says there is already "a little friendly competition" as rival teams size each up for the challenge.

The event was inspired by a report to the Surgeon General of the United States that says physical inactivity is a serious public health problem, and that regular physical activity can reduce risks of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and high blood pressure.

"By the end of Walk Across Texas, you'll have a healthy habit that will last a lifetime," according to VanDevender.

The astonishing possibilities are reported on the website, "If participants continue walking at the same level as during the Walk Across Texas, they have the potential to save a collective $127,240,868 in future health care costs.

For more information, contact VanDevender at 384-3721 or visit http://walkacrosstexas.ta mu.edu/