More than 1,700 Tesco employees across the UK started a 125-day virtual walk as part of the Global Corporate Challenge.

Each of the 245 teams of seven will be expected to walk a distance equivalent to travelling around the world (8,616 miles), monitoring their distances with pedometers.

Colin Williams, occupational health manager at Tesco, said: “We are delighted to have entered so many teams into this year’s race. This is the first year that Tesco has entered the challenge and it forms a key wellbeing initiative for us in 2010.

“With 1,715 managers and directors taking part we hope to inform people of the health benefits taking part can have. Many of our employees have to walk regularly as part of their job and I think some will be surprised just how many steps they take every day.”

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