International Women's Day 2022 Quest

"International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people." (The IWD website - click here to visit and find out more).

This IWD Quest is so much more than just a 'training session'! It is GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead's way of celebrating the achievements of women in our borough. It is scavenger hunt meets history lesson. It is life inspiration meets exercise motivation. It is route planning challenge meets guide book.

How it works...

• IWD Quest launched on International Women's Day 2022 (8th March) and will wrap up one month later on the 8th of April.

• Click here to access a map showing 30 locations in RBWM, each one labelled with and associated with the name of a woman.

• Click here to access a spreadsheet detailing the impressive and varied achievements of these amazing 30 women.

• Now your challenge is to visit as many of these 30 locations as you can on your runs, walks and bike rides before the 8th of April. At each location, read about the woman associated (albeit sometimes only loosely!) with that location and reflect on and be inspired by her achievements.

• If you like a bit of competition, add your name to this spreadsheet, and keep it updated with which locations you have been to. We will be able to see how everyone is getting on and spur each other on to get the full house.

• Unlike last year's 'Mad March Quest', not every location has a question to answer and we don't have a Questmaster keeping track of who has been where. Instead we track our own progress. However, there are a few questions along the way to get the cogs turning, and you may wish to collect photo/Strava evidence of your adventures.

• Although you can complete Quest on your own, we know from experience that we are most motivated and have the most fun when we do these things together. If you want to reach out for running buddies, share photos of your adventures, cheer on other IWD Questers and more, the best forum for this is the GoodGym Games WhatsApp group. You can join by clicking here or by contacting Amy on amylovell@goodgym.org or 07939487106 and requesting to join.

• Be safe, be inspired and have fun!

• Note that you will still have access to the spreadsheet and map after the 8th of April in case you don't complete all 30 locations before then and you wish to continue exploring.

Many thanks to the Maidenhead Heritage Centre, whose virtual exhibition on inspirational women in Maidenhead helped me create a large part of this Quest. The exhibition includes many more inspirational women than my spreadsheet. Click here to explore the exhibition.

Thank you also to Amanda Quincey, Nicola Hine and Jen Simpson, who contributed to the list of 30 women.