Pacing and timing a route
Physical Education · Key Stage 2 · The School
Counting your own steps as a measuring tool
Without a tape measure, distance outdoors can still be judged fairly accurately. Count how many double-paces — left, right counts as one — it takes you to walk a known 100 metres. That number becomes your personal measuring tool.
Using your pace count on a real route
Once you know your own count for 100 metres, count your paces on an unfamiliar route. Divide by your known count, multiply by 100, and you have a genuine distance estimate, without any equipment at all.
Why timing matters as much as distance
Knowing a route is 800 metres tells you little on its own. Knowing your walking pace covers roughly 4 kilometres an hour tells you it should take around 12 minutes. That estimate lets you plan properly, and notice quickly if something has gone wrong.
A pupil counts 65 double-paces to cover a measured 100 metres on the school field. Their personal pace count is now 65 paces per 100 metres. On a later walk, they count 130 double-paces along an unfamiliar path. Dividing 130 by 65 gives 2, so the path is roughly 200 metres long. At their known walking speed, that should take about three minutes. If ten minutes pass and they still have not arrived, that mismatch is an early, useful warning that something has gone wrong with the route.