Last week's step total came to 137,339,430 steps or 68,670 miles. Our grand total now stands at 553,202,060, that's 276,601 miles.

Over a quarter of a million miles travelled in 4 weeks, more than the distance between the earth and the moon!

We have added the week 4 step counts to the Step Count Challenge League Table. The Teasles from Alex Begg & Co are top of the tree, but it's oh so close!

Donna McColl from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde sent in this report on their challenge to walk the west coast of America to Mexico City for a slap up feed. All that way to pick up a chicken (enchilada)! Her team are also pretty high up on the Step Count Challenge League Table - Week Three. Here's Donna's update:

"We are team One Step Beyond from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and our virtual walk is taking us from San Francisco to Mexico City (2,215 miles). Here’s a map of our route:

"Our team consists of Malcolm, Kay, Karen, John and myself. We all work for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. However, Karen has now returned home to Orkney but is continuing to email us her step counts each week.

"What a (virtual) journey we are on. We have strolled through the sprawl of Los Angeles and meandered through the desert and not a camel in sight. We’ve left behind the Joshua Tree National Park and crossed a landscape formed by “strong winds, sudden torrents of rain and climatic extremes” which made us feel quite at home! We are now over the border and into Mexico heading for Chihuahua.

"We can’t wait to sample some of the Mexican food, we have a meal planned at a Mexican restaurant in Glasgow when we reach our 8 week target. Roll on that day!!

"Our tip would be to enjoy the walk and let your imagination guide you.

"Happy walking everyone."

We’re still looking for more suggestions for our walking inspired playlist. We’re looking for songs about walking and songs that make you want to get out and hit the streets for a stroll. Linda McDonald from Aberdeenshire Council suggested Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ and sent us this recollection from her childhood.

“One of the songs on my MP3 is a very old song that was a hit in the mid 60s. I remember it was the first single my big brother ever bought and it was by Nancy Sinatra singing These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.

“We used to dance around the living room driving our mum and dad crazy as it was on morning, noon and night. To this day I really enjoy this song and it fills me with so many happy memories which just lifts my mood and increases my steps which is great for the present challenge.”

To enter, send us an email at walkatwork@pathsforall.org.uk with a note of the song that inspires you to get walking and a sentence on why you suggested it. Deadline for entries is 5pm Wednesday 22 May. Everyone who enters will be put forward for a prize draw to win one of the following:

• 1st prize £50 Cotswold Outdoor voucher
• 5 runners-up will each receive a £25 Cotswold Outdoor voucher
• A further 10 runners-up will each receive a Pocket Mountains Easy Walks guidebook

We were inspired by an email from Alistair Littlejohn from team Woodland Steppers from NHS Lothian. Alistair sent us his playlist of walking related songs that he likes to listen to on his iPod when out for a stroll.

Anyway, this got us thinking. We'd like you to suggest more songs with a walking theme or just songs you like to listen to when on the move. We'll compile your suggestions and post them on the blog.

To enter, send us an email at walkatwork@pathsforall.org.uk with a note of the song that inspires you to get walking and a sentence on why you suggested it. Deadline for entries is 5pm Wednesday 22 May. Everyone who enters will be put forward for a prize draw to win one of the following:

• 1st prize £50 Cotswold Outdoor voucher
• 5 runners-up will each receive a £25 Cotswold Outdoor voucher
• A further 10 runners-up will each receive a Pocket Mountains Easy Walks guidebook

Here's Alistair's playlist, which should hopefully give you some inspiration.

Fairport Convention - Walk Awhile
The Proclaimers - Five Hundred Miles
The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops
Lucinda Williams - Sidewalks of the City
Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop
Led Zeppelin - Ramble On
Steve Earle - Steve's Last Ramble
Donald Fagen - Walk Between the Raindrops
Run DMC - Walk This way
Lemon Jelly - Rambling Man
Depeche Mode - Walking in My Shoes
Mary Chapin Carpenter - We Travelled So Far
Teenage Fanclub - Take the Long Way Home

Your week 3 steps have been counted and verified and we can confirm that we collectively took a total of 132,640,930 steps, that's 66,320 miles. Our total over the first 3 weeks of the challenge stands at 403,030,558 steps, or just over 200,000 miles.
 
If you were to walk continuously at a steady pace of 3 miles an hour it would take you more than 7.5 years to cover this distance. Well done everyone!
 
Here's the latest Step Count Challenge League Table. There are some amazing step counts and competition seems to be hotting up for the top spot. If you would like to sign your team up to the leaderboard, just drop us an email at walkatwork@pathsforall.org.uk with a note of your workplace and team name.

As promised, here are a few more of the fabulous photos you sent in to the photo competition.

This photo was sent in by Gemma Ryde. The toes belong to her team the Pacemakers from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at the University of Stirling who were enjoying a soggy walk during their lunchtime.

Stephen Campbell from NHS Western Isles caught this stunning sunset whilst walking near his home.

Lorraine Mann's team Les Fillies Bergère (which I think translates as The Shepherd Girls) from NHS Highland have a French theme for their challenge and are en route to Paris to climb the Eiffel Tower and sample some patisseries. They've worked out that if they take the stairs every day during the challenge they will have climbed the equivalent of the Eiffel tower. As Lorraine's photo shows, they've roped in a few of their colleagues to join them. Bon voyage!

This photo of Glen Rosa on Arran by Christine Barclay from East Renfrewshire Council really makes me want to put on some walking boots and head into the hills.

Lesley Anderson from EDP Renewables gets some serious kudos for taking her pedometer on holiday. Here she is at Positano on the Amalfi Coast.

John Knowles from SEPA took this atmospheric photo of Thurso beach whilst walking home from work. John says “the image was taken by resting my camera on a gate post and using a long exposure”.

The photographer of this next image wished to remain anonymous for recording his/her team mate's shameless breach of health and safety. He/she said “the bad signage photo shows one of my colleagues taking her life in her hands and using some stairs in our workplace environment that are no longer maintained”. Don't try this at home. You have been warned!

Graham Brown, Research Grants Office at Heriot-Watt University, submitted this photo of his lunchtime stroll around the university's gardens. What a nice place to work!

That's it for now, we'll try and post some more photos soon.

Did you know that mile for mile, short car trips create the most CO2 emissions? And that a third of all car journeys in Scotland are under two miles?

The Scottish Government has just launched a new campaign to encourage us all to leave the leave the car and choose walking and cycling instead. You might have seen their ad on telly:

By leaving the car, you’re not just cutting carbon emissions and helping the environment. All the evidence says you’ll feel better. As well as giving you more energy, walking or cycling for short journeys can reduce stress, help you sleep better and even improve your digestion. And it’s free, too!

A free app for the iPhone has also been developed. Journeys helps you to find and record routes and lets you know how far you’ve walked, jogged or cycled. The app also gives you instant feedback on how many calories you’re burning and all the carbon emissions you’re saving. It can even give you an idea of how much better you’re feeling.

Here’s another YouTube video with a preview of the app and what it can do:

From looking at the video it looks like a great bit of software to use alongside your pedometer to record your activity. The mapping tool seems really useful for discovering new walks, whether it’s to and from work or just to the shops for a pint of milk. We’ll be trying this out and will report back soon!

To download the free app visit the Apple Store. Or find out more at findjourneys.com

We've totted up your week 2 steps and we've added an extra 10 million steps onto last week's total! Our week 2 step count total therefore is a whopping 135,691,437 steps, or 67,846 miles. Our grand total so far is 267,066,836 steps, or 133,533 miles.

Can we reach one billion steps by the end of the challenge?

We have updated the Step Count Challenge League Table so check it out and see how your team is doing.

Remember to try and set yourself a small personal challenge whether that is getting off the bus one stop early and travel on foot for the rest of the way or taking the dog out for an extra 5 minutes, anything to boost your step count.

May is Living Streets' National Walking Month and they've produced this wonderful infographic showing that walking really does make us cleaner, greener, healthier and wealthier. 

We had a fantastic response to the Step Count Challenge photo competition with a real range of submissions. Picking a winner was no easy task, but after much deliberation we came to the following decision:

1st Prize: Luz Salazar from NHS Western Isles wins a Sony Cybershot Digital camera and her photo will appear on the cover of the next edition of our Footnotes newsletter.

Luz and her fellow walkers Physio Team 1 titled their photo No Matter the Weather and we salute their positive attitude along with their fine taste in hats and rain-wear! Luz said "walking for our team has been a real challenge as we don't seem to do as much walking during the day as we thought! So we are really trying to increase our steps week by week. This challenge has been a really positive activity for our team. We have encouraged each other to keep up with the steps."

2nd Prize: Kim Bowden from QD Events LTD wins a Sony Cybershot camera.

Her team are called The Exhibitionists as this photo clearly shows. Kim said "we work within a company called QD Events Ltd and we are an event and exhibition organising company based in Glasgow at the Scottish Exhibition Centre. We're doing the challenge in order to become fitter, healthier and to make more of an effort to walk more during and after work! We will make an effort to walk together at lunchtimes, and we have the perfect setting as we are situated right beside the river Clyde."

Runner-up: Jill Bain from the Leprosy Mission Scotland wins a £25 Schuh voucher.

This intriguing shot really stood out. Jill said "whilst racking up steps for my team The Bengal Tigers, I spotted something which underlined one of my favourite things about walking – you never know what moment of magic you might see in the most unlikely place. This is a rainbow on a demolition site, caused by the water sprayed to control dust catching the sun on a beautiful spring afternoon in Glasgow."

Runner-up: Helen Guthrie from Fife Council wins a £25 Schuh voucher.

Helen's photo captures her team the Path Pounders playing peek-a-boo during a lunchtime walk.

Runner-up: Claire Robertson from Aberdeenshire Council wins a £25 Schuh voucher.

Taking part in the challenge has inspired Claire to find new walks in her local area and we loved this neatly composed photo of a hot air balloon. Claire said "I'm in Team Accelerators this year for the walk at work step count challenge. It's the first year I've taken part and I've really enjoyed it.

"In the week or so running up to the start of the challenge, I asked colleagues for some ideas of places I could go walking with the dog. Braes of Gight was suggested to me, and the dog and I thoroughly enjoyed our first trip down there. We've been walking there regularly now and have loved that there are so many routes to take. We often find ourselves stepping up the pace to make it home before dark because we've spent too long out wandering."

Runner-up: Lynne Black from the University of Stirling wins a £25 Schuh voucher.

Lynne's photo featured in the blog last week and we thought it a deserving winner. Here's her team the Walking Warriors recreating the famous Beatles' Abbey Road album cover. After 3... 'Here comes the sun...'

Runner-up: Kerry Horwood from the Scottish Social Services Council wins a £25 Schuh voucher.

Kerry sent in this unusual photo and it caught our judges' eyes. Kerry said "as I was walking at lunchtime today, I took this picture underneath the Tay Road Bridge, just a different perspective of something I see every day!"

A big thanks to everyone who sent in a photo. We'll publish another selection of photos next week.