Doncaster project manager's epic '˜ride to Rio'

Jason Mullarkey, a project manager at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, bagged himself the bronze in the ‘Race to Rio’, a national workplace initiative to get NHS employees active.

The challenge, in which 46 NHS organisations took part in, required staff to log exercise with the aim of covering enough miles to cover the distance from the UK to Rio before the start of the Olympic Games.

Jason covered nearly 5, 300km to finish third place out of a total of nearly 2, 500 competitors nationwide, logging 830 hours of exercise over three months.

He said: “I usually train twice a day doing a mix of running and cycling. When I don’t have much time I do a circuit out on the roads where I live or on an indoor bike.

“The best sessions from the challenge were the early morning runs I did around Rome. You can never tire when there’s so much to see in the ancient city.”

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also managed to finish the race in third place on the organisation leader board. Members of the team racked up 52, 873 km in total which roughly amounts to 9, 000, 000 calories burnt and 37, 000 hours of activity.

Helen Houghton, health and wellbeing lead for the trust, said: “I’m so proud of the effort that Team DBH and, individually, Jason put into this challenge, especially in the last few weeks to bag two bronze medals.”