The Walk Across Texas competition (WAT!) was developed by the Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension office in 1996 to encourage people to be more physically active in their day-to-day lives.

I was first introduced to the competition back in 2019 as an employee of the university. A coworker sent me an email and asked if I wanted to be on their team, and I said yes. Ever since I’ve either been captain of my team or joined another team annually. 2024 marks my 6th year challenging myself and my team to complete the trek “across Texas” and be more active in our day-to-day lives.

Walk Across Texas Competition

The objective of the program is pretty simple. Put together a team of up to 8 members and together try to accomplish a walking goal of 832 miles (the distance across the state of Texas) within the eight-week program deadline.

No, unfortunately, this is not a long-haul backpacking trip or crazy wild bucket list challenge as the name may suggest.

Each week, each member of the team will calculate how many miles they walked and input them into the team’s online portal.

Since the goal of the program is to just get people active, swimming, biking, and other activities can count too. They provide an activity converter to determine how many “steps” your activity would total.

Each member has an individual goal to accomplish (which they set themselves) and a team goal to accomplish at the end of 8 weeks. The real goal is 832 miles for each team, but the website will display the goal total as being the total of all the member’s individual goals, which is often way more than 832 miles.

My goal for 2024 is 115 miles, which I will have no problem making and my teams goal is 1468 which we will be close to make or break at the end.

Last year my goal was 110 miles so I chose to up it a little bit this year. Next year I’m going to shoot for 130 total miles.

Program Activities

Although the name of the program says “walk”, the overall goal is simply to get people to be more active. As this program grows annually, AgriLife Extension has expanded opportunities as well. They plan/promote group walks for people from any team. They’ve teamed up with some local fitness centers to provide free classes in kickboxing, cardio dance, Zumba, and more!

Below is their 25th anniversary promo video from 2021.

My Walk Across Texas Competition Experiences

This free and friendly competition is something I look forward to being a part of every year. I am pretty active already, but I do a lot of weight lifting and during this eight-week challenge, I always switch it up and get more cardio in. A change of pace is always nice. My dog, Bentley, also gets extra walks during the competition, which he loves.

The WAT! portal is super easy to use and track miles. I also love that it shows stats from every year you’ve participated so you can have a little internal competition to beat your miles from last year too!

My one request for the program is that Athletics and Intramural Sports have their own league because they absolutely demolish the competition every single year. 😂😂

Some of the team names we’ve had so far include: Run for your ResLife!, Chafing the Dream, and this year – Scrambled Legs!

Economic Impact

Healthier people = less medical expenses. That’s just a fact. According to AgriLife Extension, The Walk Across Texas program has led to an economic benefit of over $2.25 billion dollars! 

“The economic benefit of the Walk Across Texas! Adult program is a measure that uses WAT! program evaluation results, disease risk rates, health care costs, and productivity parameters. Economic benefits are calculated for program participants who moved from self-reported inactive (pre-WAT!) to active (post-WAT!). The final number of participants benefitting is based on a follow-up survey that determined the percentage of those who maintained activity levels 3 – 9 months post program.” – AgriLife Extension

Not only are Texas A&M University Employees benefitting from a system that encourages them to be active and live a healthier lifestyle, but the university is benefitting as well.

Walk Across Texas Competition Future

I am fairly fitness-focused in my day-to-day life and I’d say I have good/great health so small competitions like this have little effect on my overall health, but I still really enjoy getting involved. As I mentioned before, I mostly lift weights so this encourages me to focus more on cardio.

Mostly though, I like the camaraderie between those in my office, department, and even others I rarely see on campus! It creates opportunity to be a part of a different team working toward a new/fun goal.

I will probably be on a team until I either stop working at Texas A&M, the program dies out, or I retire! 😊

*Originally published in March 2023, updated in March 2024.