Swimming, walking, cycling and CrossFit were all ways of getting moving for this years 12ks of Christmas... as well as a lot of running!

This year we had more people than ever before taking part in our 12ks of Christmas Challenge. Any form of self-propelled movement was encouraged and that meant we had people cycling, rowing, walking, swimming and running. 

In York, there was a buzz around The Knavesmire pub on December 3rd. We had a last minute panic that a new venue might be needed had England progressed further in the World Cup, but it worked out ok (for the runners rather then the football team) and they did a great job of hosting us for the challenge. A team of over 30 people joined us for the ‘Ultimate Challenge’ of running 1k at 1pm, 2k at 2pm and all the way through to 12k at midnight. Shout out to Andy for completing the challenge, and to Simon for going all the way through to 11k at 11pm. No matter how far people got, a good time was had by all and there were certainly a lot of kilometers run!

In Durham, there was a team of 6 – 3 runners, 1 rower and 2 dragon boaters – out on Sunday 4th December on a day of torrential rain. The team of 6 got their 12ks done and enjoyed a well deserved warm up afterwards. The CrossFit Jacana gym in Durham ran an in-house fundraising competition called the ‘Move Mates’ Charity Throwdown’ on December 18th with over 40 people attending.

We had individuals from other locations taking part including Leeds, Edinburgh, Scunthorpe and Harrogate. One fundraiser walked 2k to her swimming pool and then swam 1k, we had people doing a combination of running, walking and cycling for the first 12 days of December and one fundraiser finished her 12ks efforts with a marathon.

All this brilliant activity has helped raise over £1500 and will be used to help make movement a reality for more people, improving wellbeing through exercise.