Walk This May returns

A local walking campaign is back in Worcestershire and Herefordshire for 2026, and the pitch is unusually simple: walk when you can, keep doing it through May, and count that as success. The organizers say the challenge is open to all ages and abilities rather than built around speed, rankings, or long-distance targets. (kidderminstershuttle.co.uk) The scheme is being led by Active Herefordshire and Worcestershire alongside Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council, which makes it less like a one-off charity walk and more like a county-backed public-health campaign. The stated aim is to get people outdoors and help them make local connections while they do it. (droitwichstandard.co.uk) This is a return, not a launch. The same campaign ran in 2025, when walking groups across the two counties asked residents to help cover the 53-mile distance between Herefordshire and Worcestershire by walking during May. (droitwichstandard.co.uk) That 53-mile marker is not random. It comes from the length of the border between the two counties, so the challenge gives people a concrete distance to picture without asking each person to walk it alone. (droitwichstandard.co.uk) Last year’s total shows how the math works when lots of short walks add up. Organizers said participants covered 4,723.18 miles in 2025, which they described as the equivalent of walking that 53-mile county border 89 times. (droitwichstandard.co.uk) The local groups behind the push are built for people who do not want a hard start. Worcestershire Health Walks has promoted free walks lasting about 20 to 90 minutes on easy terrain, with routes designed to be reachable on foot or by public transport. (droitwichstandard.co.uk) That helps explain why the message this year is about repetition instead of intensity. The campaign language in local coverage focuses on stepping outside, getting active, and joining in, which is a much lower bar than training plans, finish times, or sports-club membership. (kidderminstershuttle.co.uk) (droitwichstandard.co.uk) In practice, that means the challenge is trying to turn a short local walk into something social and repeatable. A 30-minute loop with neighbors counts, a gentle group walk counts, and enough of those small outings can still produce a four-digit mileage total by the end of the month. (droitwichstandard.co.uk 1) (droitwichstandard.co.uk 2) So the story here is not that two English counties invented walking. It is that local councils and activity groups are trying again with a format that worked once already: make the target friendly, make the distances shareable, and let thousands of ordinary steps do the heavy lifting through May. (droitwichstandard.co.uk 1) (droitwichstandard.co.uk 2)