Final push for Strava elevation challenge

After the roaring success of a series of lockdown challenges, it’s time for one final push to get the last Strava mission completed.  

The #40in40 Lockdown challenge was the first of its kind, with the hope of pupils, staff and the Shrewsbury community covering enough miles to circumnavigate the globe, covering 40,000km in 40 days.

Over 80 per cent of pupils took part in the first Lockdown challenge, with more than 70 members of staff clocking in their miles and 217 members of the Shrewsbury community on Strava joining in.

The #40in40 goal was reached quickly thanks to the large numbers taking part and was increased to the #80in40 challenge, with the result for that challenge totalling an impressive 81,283km covered in 40 days.

As well as getting people moving, it was also a chance to raise money for a number of charities in the process. The total raised by our pupils so far is an impressive £22,885.

Director of Sport Andrew Pembleton said: “We really wanted the pupils to stay active during a time of remote learning and to feel connected to their school community in some way, all while doing it safely.

We had 675 pupils take part across the houses for the #40in40 challenge, which was a fantastic effort from our Salopians.

“Overall, everyone has done amazingly, and I’m so pleased with how so many people have got on board with the challenges. The aim of this initiative was to keep people active, ensure we were helping to take care of people’s mental health as well as keeping everyone connected at a time where we couldn’t be together.

“The entire community got behind the initiative: staff, parents and Old Salopians, and those overseas too. It was a great way to bring the Shrewsbury community closer together.”

After the success of the Lockdown challenge, Andrew felt the community could go that extra step further before pupils returned to site and added two further challenges.

The first of those challenges was to cover the distance to our Sister Schools in Bangkok and on to Hong Kong, a total distance of 11,000km in 10 days, before all our pupils returned to site on March 8.

Of course, that target was well and truly beaten, and our amazing community covered 11,600km in 12 days.

Andrew said: “We reached out to our Sister Schools in Bangkok and Hong Kong who were really proactive with this challenge. It was impressive to see them get involved, and the team out there produced a great video at the end of the challenge.”

The final challenge is still active and looks to reach an elevation of 408,000m (408km), the same elevation that the International Space Station is currently orbiting the earth at.

Three weeks in, the Shrewsbury School community have climbed a total of 265,606m. This challenge lasts until the end of Lent Term, so let’s get the community walking, cycling or running to reach our goal and declare this challenge ‘out of this world’!