Geelong’s Gym

For the second year, a truly worthy event is taking place in Geelong to raise awareness of homelessness – the Walking Home project. Last year, 20 walkers were nominated from various support agencies in Geelong to complete a five day, 189 kilometre walk.  A rigorous training schedule commenced for a 6 month period leading up to the BIG WALK in November 2009.

Walking Home 2009

During the walk, the walkers camped out in the towns along the way and spoke to community groups about the impact of homelessness.

Two amazing outcomes were realized as a result of this event:

• Lots and lots of people wanted to help raise money to assist in buying shoes to give to homeless people.
• Lots and lots of people wanted the opportunity to walk an amazing distance that is way outside their normal activity regime.

This year, the Walking Home project is a one day event being held on Saturday 13^th November 2010…  a 50km walk from Queenscliff to Geelong and it’s open to the public to walk.  As the logistics of putting large numbers of walkers on the open road is too great, the rail trail will be used to the showgrounds and then the last leg of the walk is out on the streets.

There are also options of joining the walk at three alternative stages so you can do 20km, 12km or 5km if you prefer – so why not join the walk for the length which suits you best?!

A small entry fee is involved, as well as an opportunity to have family and friends sponsor your efforts.  Hopefully a lot of much needed money for Homelessness will be generated.

T-shirts are included in the 50km walk entry and also available for sale for people joining the walk at the various points.

And finally, here is your chance to walk and make a difference… not just to this worthwhile cause, but to your health and fitness.  A challenge, a goal to reach.

So put your best foot forward and start on this journey today. See the Walking Home notice board at Geelong’s Gym for the full training schedule and lots of helpful hints, plus registration details.

Geelong’s Gym is proud to be one of the sponsors of the Walking Home project and the training facility for the walkers.

Well the pace has really stepped up in the training for Walking Home, with Nike setting the group of 20 volunteer walkers a challenge for September…300km to be walked in the month.

Now at first glance that doesn’t seem such a big deal. So let’s break it down.

30 days….10km walked daily. Seems easy enough I hear you say.

But it is WALKING, not running.

So based on walking at 6km per hour, that’s 1 hour and 40 mins of walking every day. Too bad if it’s raining, if your work is hectic, if the kids have extra needs to be met before and after school. And what happens if you miss a day? You do the sums.

And here is the biggest hurdle-the time required to prepare for this event. There is nothing but walking to get your hips, shins, ankles and knees ready for the 187km five day hike. But all the participants have ‘normal’ lives to co-ordinate and sometimes finding the extra time is very hard.

So if you see one of the walkers in training in the gym, give them a smile and pause to ponder just what they are giving to this amazing event.

Ordinary people making an extraordinary difference.

Did you know that on any given night 100, 000 Australians are homeless?

Do you know how lucky you are to have a warm house to go home to over the winter period?

I am proud to announce that Geelong’s Gym is one of the sponsors of the Walking Home Event, a walk from Warrnambool to Geelong to raise awareness and understanding of homelessness issues in our region.

This is such an exciting initiative and we are thrilled to be involved.  The event will be taking place in November over a five day period and there’s lots to be done in the meantime.

Like what, you might ask.  It’s just walking, right?

Well, yes.  Except the participants are going to be clocking up a total of 189 kilometres over the five days!  I’m sure you’ll agree that’s quite a distance and requires a whole lot of physical and mental preparation.  And that’s where we come in, naturally.

Ann Cramp, one of the trainers at Geelong’s Gym, has already started training the participants with a tailor-made program that will elevate their walking fitness and stamina levels while ensuring that injuries are prevented.  They even have their own special Spin class once a fortnight, to add some variety to their training regime and the Spin Instructors who take those classes are contributing their time in support of the event.

You might wonder why I’m telling you about this.  I believe it’s important to support the community events and initiatives in our area, particularly when they’re for such a good cause.  Geelong’s Gym has been involved in the Geelong community for 45 years and we’re proud to be such a significant contributor.

So, when you see some of the participants training in the gym, why not take a couple of seconds to encourage them as they work towards the Walking Home Event.  I’m sure your support will be greatly appreciated.