East Renfrewshire Active Schools tackle Tokyo Challenge

School pupils and residents are clocking up miles in the virtual challenge.

East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure’s Active Schools team set the challenge for locals to walk, cycle or run 5,768 miles to the destination of the next Olympics, scheduled for summer 2021, which they achieved in fourteen days.

Now the challenge is on to return back to East Renfrewshire and the team hopes to beat their two-week record.

Active Schools' Team Leader Gary McGunnigle from East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure said: “Our Active Schools Tokyo challenge is a great way to encourage everyone in the community to get active and spend more time outdoors.

“The uptake from local schools and residents has been fantastic and the number of people taking part is increasing daily. The response has been so good that the journey to Tokyo was completed in 14 days. The Active Schools team have now set the challenge of returning back to East Renfrewshire in under 14 days."

160 people have signed up for the challenge so far. Locals can still join the Active East Renfrewshire team on the free STRAVA app to support schools as they strive to reach their goal.

Active School co-ordinator Kerry Comerford added: “We started the challenge in the middle of February and invited our local schools to sign up, as well as parents of school pupils, families, teachers and anyone in the local community who would like to get involved.

“It gives everyone involved a focus and collective achievement. East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure staff have also been getting involved and clocking up their miles to help reach our target and it's been great to work together virtually towards a shared goal.

“We were delighted to get to Toyko virtually in 14 days and are looking forward to seeing if we can beat this on the way home."

Sign up to STRAVA and search for Active East Renfrewshire to get involved and track your miles. If you're under 16, you can ask a family member to sign up and take part together.

You can follow the Active Schools' team on Twitter to keep up to date on progress (@ERCL4 and ActiveSchoolsER).