for_press
14 April 2016

Students from colleges all over Ireland have been rewarded for walking, during the National Transport Authority’s third annual Marchathon – the 10,000 Step Challenge. From March 7th – 11th, students from 16 third level campuses took on the challenge to each reach 10,000 steps every day.

670 students from around the country together clocked up a massive 21 million steps during the 5 day challenge. Students reported many benefits of taking part in the challenge, including:

  • Increased activity level: 70%
  • Made them feel good about themselves: 66%
  • Increased fitness: 49%
  • Reduction in stress: 38%
  • Lost weight: 11%
  • Made new friends on campus: 11%

“It can be a challenge to reach College students, so we are delighted to see this event growing again this year. We are now working with a number of colleges to integrate this event into the college curriculum and we therefore hope to see it grow even further in 2017”, said Sharon Daly, Challenge Coordinator, National Transport Authority.

Many prizes were awarded to students reaching the daily 10,000 step target. Students also won prizes for making huge efforts to reach the daily target and for being inspirational team captains, team members and for their fantastic team photos and videos.

Further information can be found on the National Transport Authority’s Smarter Travel Campus website www.smartertravelcampus.ie or www.marchathon.ie

The Smarter Travel Campus ‘Marchathon’, which is organised by the National Transport Authority, ran for 5 days, from the 7-11th of March 2016. This was the third year of this event which was open to all third level institutions who are partners of the Smarter Travel Campus programme.

ENDS//

Editor’s Notes:

The Smarter Travel Campus Programme is implemented by the National Transport Authority with funding from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The programme is aimed at Third Level Campuses in Ireland seeking to develop Workplace Travel Plans. Workplace Travel Plans have been shown internationally to reduce single occupancy car use on the commute by between 10% and 24%. Workplace Travel Plans also reduce costs associated with parking, business travel, fleet, CO2 emissions, absenteeism, and access issues. Further information on the programme and Partners can be found at www.smartertravelcampus.ie

Further information on the Marchathon 2016 can be found here –

Website: www.marchathon.ie

Facebook: www.facebook.com/smartertravelcampus

Twitter: @STcampus

Participating campuses:

  • Athlone Institute of Technology
  • Dublin City University
  • Dublin Institute of Technology
  • Galway Mayo Institute of Technology
  • Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
  • Institute of Technology Carlow
  • Institute of Technology Sligo
  • Limerick Institute of Technology
  • Mary Immaculate College
  • Maynooth University
  • National University of Ireland, Galway
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • University College Cork
  • University College Dublin
  • University of Limerick
  • Waterford Institute of Technology