In life many of us like a challenge. Whether it is the challenge of sticking to a new year’s resolution, setting a new record or even a personal challenge like losing weight or improving fitness levels. The latter has certainly been the challenge for some of the public services students at Redcar and Cleveland College over the recent lockdown period, who have completed a challenge to walk, run or cycle the distance in miles that it would take to travel from Land’s End in Cornwall, England, to John O’Groats in Caithness, Scotland. 

The twelve students taking part were set the challenge by course tutors Graham and Mark to help keep active during the recent lockdown. The challenge was coordinated by students Adam, Jim and Lee. 

‘‘We wanted to do a challenge which would help to keep us all fit and motivated whilst we were spending more time at home. Initially I didn’t think many people would want to get involved with it so it was nice to see everyone so eager to play their part,’’ explained Adam, from Redcar. 

For Jim, running is a keen hobby and he was often running half-marathon and cycling full-marathon distances for his part in the challenge. ‘‘I live in New Marske, so I would often run routes from New Marske to Redcar and surrounding areas and back or sometimes I would even cycle from Redcar through to Middlesbrough,’’ he said. 

Reflecting on the team spirit shown during the event Jim commented: ‘‘We already had built up strong team spirit during the course so it was great that we were able to build on this with the challenge.’’ 

A group chat was set-up over messaging app, WhatApp, to help the team keep track of the times and sessions which were tracked on fitness app, Strava. ‘’There was so much comradery in the chat between us all. There was certainly a few times which brought some laughs between us all but it was so motivating and helped us kick on with the challenge,’’ Jim said. 

For Lee, he wanted to take part in the challenge to help make sure that not only his fitness stayed in shape but also his mental health. He said: ‘‘We have seen a lot in the news recently about people’s mental health during lockdown. We all enjoyed this challenge because it allowed us to get out of the house and get some fresh air each day. Mental health is really important and this challenge has allowed us all to focus on something during this period and it has kept us all really positive and in a good frame of mind to be honest.’’ 

Course leader for public services, Mark Watts commented: ‘‘It has been fantastic to see the commitment to this challenge that the students have shown over the last seven weeks. It really is a great achievement for them to have been able to complete the 876 miles. The challenge is part of their work related project. With the recent restrictions, it has been really difficult for the students to complete work placements with local businesses so we wanted to set a challenge which would help to develop the  students’ leadership, planning and teamwork skills as well as helping them to keep fit and exercise during this difficult period.’’