How do you keep connected when your team is scattered across a county of 660 square miles, with no idea of when we can meet together again? How do you stay connected and share a common goal?

Look, we’re Thrive Tribers. And you know what that means; we like a challenge, we like each other, and we like being physical!

So, the idea of the monthly timed relay was born. We’re aiming to rack up the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats - that’s 1,407 kilometres.

Starting from wherever you are in the country, each person is given a time slot at 30-minute intervals throughout the first Saturday of each month. We run / walk / jog / cycle for 30 minutes exactly, handing the virtual ‘baton’ over to the next person in turn.  

When everyone has completed their leg, the distances are added up to see how far we’ve managed to travel ‘together’.

It’s a really fun way of keeping in touch, feeling like we’re still a team, and achieving big things – like we always do! So, it’s a little microcosm of the OYES experience; connection, success and teamwork.

The relay’s really inclusive; some people have covered a kilometre or two in their 30 minutes while walking with dogs or toddlers, and some (you can guess who!) take the distance really seriously.

There’s a cap of 25 km for cyclists; Bev is a regular cycling around the hills of Sussex and Amy’s sure to be on the exercise bike. As for the runners, the current men’s winner so far is 7.52km (the much-missed Matt King), while Katie Chuck outdid herself this weekend with an outstanding 6.8km to take the women’s record.  

With an average monthly total of around 78 km, it’ll take a good 18 months to go the full distance. But that’s ok. John O’Groats will be waiting for us and we’ll get there together. Whether we’ve been allowed to gather together physically before then or not, we’ll succeed as a team like we always do.

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