Beat the Street draws to a close as Rosa, 9, completes route round Falkirk in one day

The competition, which encourages young people to get outside and walk, run or cycle, closes on Wednesday, May 14. For the last four weeks pupils of eight primary schools have been busy dashing round the district using cards and apps to log their active miles at special sensor beat boxes placed on lampposts around safer walking routes between Carmuirs and the Kelpies and Falkirk High Station.

One youngsters who was so determined to hit every beat box in one day was nine-year-old Rosa Hepburn from Falkirk. She encouraged dad Henry and Brea the family dog to accompany her last Sunday – and the youngster rose to the challenge completing her task, covering the distance of a half marathon in the process.

The P5 Comely Park pupil did most of the route on her scooter, while dad and Brea followed behind on foot.

Henry said: “She was really keen to do it but I thought that she’d get bored or tired. However, that didn’t happen and it was me who was foot weary by the end. We started at 9am and did most of them by 2.30pm, then did one next to Falkirk Tennis Club later before going for a walk at the Helix to do the final ones.

"I think youngsters enjoy the competitive element of it and I’ve seen parts of Falkirk that I’ve never seen before. As a family we were watching the TV programme Race across the World and we said this was our ‘race across Falkirk’.”

In this final week every beat box will be giving out double points before the game ends at 7pm on Wednesday so perhaps Rosa may want to hit the route again.

Schools taking part are Bainsford, Langlees, Carmuirs, Easter Carmuirs, Comely Park, Bantaskin, St Francis and Victoria with 3845 people signed up, who together have walked, cycled, wheeled, run and scooted an incredible 35,663 miles so far in the competition.

Bainsford Primary School leads the total and average points leaderboards – their 387 players have scored 220,060 points. Bantaskin Primary School is second on total points – their 531 players have scored 193,800 points and Comely Park Primary School is third with 193,510 points.

Beat the Street Falkirk North has been commissioned by Bainsford Primary School and is funded by Paths for All through the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places Open Fund. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health.

Susanne McCafferty, headteacher at Bainsford Primary, said: “The game really has created a buzz and it has been fantastic to see everyone getting active as a community. The Beat the Street game itself is just the start though – when the game comes to an end, we’ll then continue to work with the local community to ensure that these healthy lifestyle habits are put into action and players are signposted to activities and community groups that they might not have known about before.”