Ready for a long walk?:Try hiking from Memphis to Bristol

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Hilda Lytle stands in front of a Tennessee map to promote the program Walk Across Tennessee. The goal of the program is to encourage children and adults to become more physically active. (Will Stewart photo)

It sounds impossible, but 140 county residents are currently walking across the state of Tennessee, 519 miles from Memphis to Bristol, without ever leaving Warren County.

No, these walkers haven’t found a way to skirt the laws of nature. They are participating in Walk Across Tennessee, a cross-community effort to incorporate greater physical fitness into the lives of county residents. The program is coordinated through the school system’s Coordinated School Health Program as well as the Warren County Extension Service, the Warren County Health Department and the McMinnville Parks and Recreation Department.

Here’s how it works: teams comprised of five individuals compete to see which can walk the most total miles over a period of eight weeks, from Aug. 3 to Sept. 27. Several prizes will be awarded, including one to the team which reaches the checkpoint of McMinnville first, as well as the team which logs the most miles.

“Our purpose is to get people out and moving,” said extension agent and event co-chair Hilda Lytle. “Sixty percent of Tennesseans don’t engage in regular physical activity.

Walking has many benefits, including lowering high blood pressure, fighting obesity and lowering the chances of getting cardiovascular disease.”

Chances of Tennesseans dying from cardiovascular disease, Lytle noted, are two times greater than the national average.

Another portion of the event, featuring children, begins Tuesday. At many county schools, students will voluntarily spend their physical education time over the next four weeks walking. All schools participating will receive a portion of the funds raised through the entry fees of the adult teams, which will benefit the schools’ physical education departments.

Students can also accumulate miles walked at home. It will be up to parents to keep track of these miles and it is hoped parents will join their children in walking at home.

Lytle said she believes incorporating good physical fitness habits in children is vital, noting the percentage of adolescents who are overweight has tripled in the past 20 years. “And 75 percent of overweight 9 to 13 year olds don’t change their habits and remain that way in adulthood,” she said.

Awards for both the adult and children portions of Walk Across Tennessee will be distributed Oct. 12 at Fun and Fitness Day, a day-long event to be held at the Civic Center with the purpose of promoting physical activity.