Yousuf Fauzan's mother was going to be on the phone a lot this October. She would talk to her son for hours every day during the month. I would call again 15 minutes later, after she disconnected the call.
Yousuf, a software engineer at YouTube, called his mom and everyone he knows to get his steps in for the Walktober competition. I don't talk to people on the phone a lot, but during October I call everyone I know. Yousuf spent the night in his condo to hold his top spot on the leader board. He had accumulated more than two million steps by the end of the month.
Tiffany Bartish-Katz says this is a friendly competition that attracts people. Walktober started in the Cambridge, Massachusetts office of the internet giant and quickly went global, with more than 25,000 employees in 190 offices joining the competition. Tiffany says she is always amazed by the number of people who engage in the project. The planning team works hard to make sure everyone gets in the spirit, from ultra walkers like Yousuf to those who are adding just a few more thousand steps to their routines.
Some participants decided to donate their step counts to a good cause. Greg Kroleski walked for 24 hours straight last year. A coworker suggested tying the challenge to a charity. A lot of people paid attention. I wanted to pay attention to something good. Greg dedicated this year's challenge to raise awareness for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, a chronic disease that causes overwhelming fatigue. He and his colleagues raised over $13,000. The 24 hour challenge? Greg set a Walktober record that day, logging over 204,000 steps. Someone else broke my record the next day. There is more reason to give it another go. He says you might see him again.
