The Mega Miles Challenge is a fundraising event raising money for the Charity for Civil Servants. We're asking how far we can go for civil servants who need our help right now.

Taking place this May, during National Walking Month, it’s your chance to join a community of people strolling, walking, jogging, and even running, to support colleagues going through tough times.

Taking part is easy, just follow these 5 simple steps:

• Sign up for free (this creates your fundraising page)
• Choose your distance target and plan when you will do it
• Decide whether you will take part as a team or on your own
• Share your fundraising page with friends and family
• Get moving, get fundraising and have some fun!

Every mile matters and every penny raised will help fellow civil servants through life's tough times.

Together, how far can we go?

Sign up for free

You can sign up for free from 15 January when registration opens. At that point simply click on the 'Sign up' button, and follow the simple instructions.

By signing up you will automatically create a fundraising page. Personalise your fundraising page by adding a photo and a few words about why you are taking part and share it with friends and family.

You can take part on your own, or in a team. You can create a team and invite people to join it once you've signed up, by logging in and selecting 'Create team' within your dashboard. 

There is no minimum fundraising target – every penny you raise counts and will ensure we can help civil servants when life gets tough.

The Challenge takes place during the month of May, which is also National Walking Month.

You can take on the Challenge for the whole month, or simply choose to do something within the month – it’s really flexible so you can fit it around your working day or week.

The Mega Miles Challenge is primarily for all current, former and retired Civil Service staff but if you’d like to get your friends and family involved, the more the mega-er!

You can keep track of the miles you travel, manually, or via the app you like best. Fitness tracking will be available from around 9am on 1 May and you can access it through your ‘Profile’ when you are logged in. There is a helpful converter tool for those of you who prefer tracking steps to make it as easy as possible.

You can automatically track your distance using the apps Strava, FitBit, Garmin or MapMyFitness. The advantage of Strava, FitBit, Garmin or MapMyFitness is that you can link them directly to your profile! But of course, you can enter your mileage manually too.

Please note, on occasions other fitness activity (e.g. cycling) is tracked automatically by accident, it may be necessary for us to periodically delete those additional miles.

How to change your target distance:

From 1 May you will be able to connect your Strava fitness app and start tracking your mileage.

Your profile page includes your personal distance tally so you can track your distance towards your target. This is a great way to keep your friends updated on your workouts!

If you track your workouts with Strava your distances will automatically add to your tally.

Follow these steps to track your miles automatically:

1. Download the Strava app and set up your account
2. Log in to your Mega Miles account.
3. Under the heading Connect your preferred Fitness app, click your chosen app.
4. Follow the prompts to connect your account
5. When you next work out, select start your workout in the app on your phone. Once you end your workout, save your workout and your distance will be published to the tally on your page the following day.

If you have synced your app already but it is not working, please log in and re-connect it.

Your total will be updated each day with the previous day’s distances.

From 1 May you will be able to connect your Fitbit fitness app and start tracking your mileage.

Your profile page includes your personal distance tally so you can track your distance towards your target. This is a great way to keep your friends updated on your workouts!

If you track your workouts with Fitbit your distances will automatically add to your tally.

Follow these steps to track your miles automatically:

1. Download the Fitbit app and set up your account
2. Log in to your Mega Miles account.
3. Under the heading Connect your preferred Fitness app, click your chosen app.
4. Follow the prompts to connect your account
5. FitBit integration will include your general day to day distance, it will not include recorded activity that you START and STOP. your distance will be published to the tally on your page the following day.

If you have synced your app already but it is not working, please log in and re-connect it.

Your total will be updated each day with the previous day’s distances.

From 1 May you will be able to connect your Garmin fitness app and start tracking your mileage.

Your profile page includes your personal distance tally so you can track your distance towards your target. This is a great way to keep your friends updated on your workouts!

If you track your workouts with Garmin your distances will automatically add to your tally.

Follow these steps to track your miles automatically:

1. Download the Garmin app and set up your account
2. Log in to your Mega Miles account.
3. Under the heading Connect your preferred Fitness app, click your chosen app.
4. Follow the prompts to connect your account
5. When you next work out, select start your workout in the app on your phone. Once you end your workout, save your workout and your distance will be published to the tally on your page the following day.

If you have synced your app already but it is not working, please log in and re-connect it.

For Garmin: You must start your workout, stop your workout and then SAVE your workout.

Your total will be updated each day with the previous day’s distances.

From 1 May you will be able to connect your MapMyFitness app and start tracking your mileage.

Your profile page includes your personal distance tally so you can track your distance towards your target. This is a great way to keep your friends updated on your workouts!

If you track your workouts with MapMyFitness your distances will automatically add to your tally.

Follow these steps to track your miles automatically:

1. Download the MapMyFitness app and set up your account
2. Log in to your Mega Miles account.
3. Under the heading Connect your preferred Fitness app, click your chosen app.
4. Follow the prompts to connect your account
5. When you next work out, select start your workout in the app on your phone. Once you end your workout, save your workout and your distance will be published to the tally on your page the following day.

If you have synced your app already but it is not working, please log in and re-connect it.

For MapMyFitness: You must start your workout, stop your workout and then SAVE your workout.

Your total will be updated each day with the previous day’s distances.

From 1 May the tab 'My fitness activity will appear in your dashboard and you will be able to manually add in your fitness activity and start tracking your mileage.

This is a great option if you’re using a pedometer or a different method of tracking your miles and we've added a handy converter if you prefer to track steps. Our converter is based on 1 mile = 2,000 steps.

Follow these steps to manually add your activity:

1. Log in to your account and select 'My Fitness Activity'.
2. Under 'Add activity', enter the required fields.
3. The logged activity will now appear on your fundraising page!

You can take part as an individual or as a team and there is no limit on the size of the team. There will be fundraising leaderboards for both individuals and teams for you competitive types.

To create a team go to your page and then at the top right press on your name, then 'Dashboard'. You'll then have the option to create a team. As team captain you can then invite people to join your team. There's no limit to how many people can be on a team.

Inviting people to join your team:

Viewing your team members:

Joining a team:

You can raise money offline using our sponsorship form. Simply download the form and collect cash from friends, family and colleagues. You can either donate the total amount onto your fundraising page on this site, or contact us to transfer the funds. Please email fundraise@cfcs.org.uk for more information.

Although the Mega Miles Challenge is designed as a walk / jog / run challenge, we do have some participants who will be doing other ‘person-powered’ activities such as swimming, to cover their distance. We understand that it won’t be a one-size-fits-all and if someone wants to do their challenge by swimming, they are more than welcome to – please note, anyone doing this will need to manually track their distance as the fitness app integrations are designed to pick up foot based activity only.

We would ask you not to include machine-powered activity e.g. cycling, in the distance covered. This is purely because we have leaderboards and cycling 100 miles takes less time than walking 100 miles. Ultimately, it’s your challenge and you can do it your way – anything that encourages our community of civil servants to get active, challenge themselves, and raise money to support others going through a tough time is what it’s all about.

We want the Mega Miles Challenge to be as inclusive as possible. Wheelchair users can take part with an odometer that measures the distance covered in your wheelchair. Basic digital odometers designed for bicycles can be used and adapted as necessary, most bicycle shops will help you. Make sure you've calibrated it to your tyre size, the standard wheelchair tyre diameter is 24 inches. Once you’ve registered let us know at fundraise@cfcs.org.uk and we’ll make sure you're set up to go.

There are several digital badges to unlock throughout the Challenge. As you progress the badges will light up on your fundraising page! Can you collect them all?