BALTIMORE — 200 miles is the distance from the MedStar hospital in St. Mary's County to MedStar Franklin Square in Baltimore. On April 13, three runners covered that distance over the course of four days, finishing on April 16.
Michael Wardian, Chris Heydrick and Chris Wilde stopped at 15 MedStar Health sites along the way to promote health and wellness.
"We first had this idea between Mike Wardian, who is our third guy, who a few years ago just had a crazy idea to see if we could link a lot of the MedStar Hospital and outpatient sites together by a foot-powered journey. And then it evolved into, 'oh, it'd be cool to do the southernmost MedStar to the northernmost MedStar,'" said Heydrick, a physical therapist with MedStar.
Data was collected to see how events like this affect the cardiovascular system. The trio were tested at the beginning and end of their run.
"I think most of us that run would love to know what our body is doing during and how it recovers, and it's interesting we're doing follow-up labs too, so we can watch if anything was abnormal. Does it recover? How long does it take to recover? It's pretty impressive when you look at that," said Wilde, a physician assistant with MedStar.
During the run, there was a support van with trainers that had everything the runners would need when they stopped. Vaseline, a sock change and even sunscreen were some of the things the runners were thinking about.
The biggest takeaway these runners want people to come away with? Get active.
"Hopefully that puts something in their mind and says it may be time to start moving a little bit. 'Maybe it's time—I don't need to run a marathon or a 5K, but maybe it's time to get off the couch and just do something that better promotes activities of daily living,'" Wilde said.
"It doesn't take much and that was a common message. It could be anything from pickleball to just taking the stairs every day instead of the elevator, parking a little further away, walking up the parking lot," Wilde added.
Heydrick says the key is to find something interesting to you.
"The whole message there becomes finding something that is interesting to you and that feels sustainable for you... We also have a lot of research to show going for a 15-minute walk lowers blood sugar. It can lower cholesterol in that moment, can improve mood," he explained.
So if you're reading this and wondering where to start your own health journey, remember what Wardian, Heydrick and Wilde learned over 200 miles: the hardest part isn't the distance—it's taking that first step.
