Students and Staff Run a Total of 21,330 km
Half the circumference of the Earth or nine times along the Czech border; that is the total distance covered by the students, academics and employees of the University of Pardubice in a single month. They were motivated by the Let’s Get the Uni Running call announced on April 1st by the Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Pardubice, during long-term online teaching and pandemic restrictions.
The contest involved students of all seven faculties, who covered more than 15,500 km out of 21,330 km. The most kilometres were run by a team of students and staff from the Faculty of Chemical Technology. In April, they completed 800 runs and recorded 5,886 km in their mobile apps. Taking second place, the Faculty of Health Studies covered 4,598 km, while the third place went to the Faculty of Economics and Administration with 4,338 km. Overall, the most kilometres in a month – 550 km – were run by Pavel Drabina, an employee of the Faculty of Chemical Technology, followed by student Petr Šindelář of the Jan Perner Faculty of Transport, with 377 km.
The whole event was to promote a healthy lifestyle and motivate people to move during the pandemic and online teaching. To perform better, the faculties supported and encouraged each other through social networks. Furthermore, the university published weekly results of the duel along with some challenges. On Earth Day, it challenged runners to a so-called Plogging combining jogging with picking up litter. At other times, it focused on breaking the personal records of the runners.
The winning faculty will receive the trophy, while the best runners will get awards and medals. “It’s great that, at last, we did manage to get the whole Uni running. I’ve got great admiration for the performance of all the students, fellow academics, and employees as well. It’s clear that, even in the pandemic, many of them kept on working on their condition and some, maybe due to the situation, just took up running as a simple sport to do. We thank them all,” said Mgr. Jan Němec, the head of the Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Pardubice.
Since 1997, the Department of Physical Education and Sports has been an independent part of the University of Pardubice, providing sports facilities for the university students within compulsory and optional subjects. Furthermore, the department also offers its sports facilities to the public – by organising sports events, lectures on healthy lifestyle, and special workshops.
