About Marchathon
Marchathon is a fun team Step Challenge which is taking place from Monday 2nd March to Sunday 29th March this year. It is open to staff and students of workplaces and third level campuses that are partners of the Smarter Travel Programme. To check if your organisation is a Programme Partner, click here.
Registration for Marchathon 2026 will go live on the 27th of January.
Participating Organisations
If you’re not sure whether your organisation has registered to take part in Marchathon 2026, you can find a list of registered organisations below. Once your organisation is registered for Marchathon, staff and students can form teams of 3–6 people. If your organisation is a partner of the Smarter Travel Programme and is not listed below, please ask your Smarter Travel Coordinator to email stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie.
Getting Started
Setting up your Marchathon team is quick and easy. Just follow the simple steps below to get started. Once your team is registered, you’ll be ready to track your steps, stay motivated, and enjoy the challenge together.
How to Set Up Your Team
- First, choose a team name and nominate a Team Captain. Each participant will need:
- a working email address, and
- a registered and verified Active Travel Logger account.
Your Team Captain will act as the main point of contact and will set up your team on the Active Travel Logger website.
Using the Active Travel Logger
Useful Video Tutorials for Participants
These short video tutorials will guide you through the basics and will help you get started quickly. They cover everything you need to begin using the Active Travel Logger with confidence:
Useful Video Tutorials for Team Captains
If you’re a Team Captain, these short tutorials will help you manage your team. They walk you through the key tasks you’ll need to complete, from inviting team members to logging steps on behalf of your team.
- How to invite team members using the Active Travel Logger
- How to log steps on behalf of your Team Members
Useful Video Tutorials for Organisation Coordinators
If you’re coordinating Marchathon within your organisation, these short tutorials will help you manage everything smoothly. They walk you through how to view all the teams taking part, keep team details up to date, and support participants throughout the challenge. These videos make it easy to oversee activity, troubleshoot issues, and ensure your organisation gets the most out of Marchathon.
- How to view teams from your organisation taking part in a challenge
- How to edit team names, delete teams, and invite new team members
Key Information
To appear on the Weekly Leaderboard, the deadline to log your steps is by 2pm every Monday. If you miss a day, you can back‑log steps for up to eight days during the challenge.
If you need to change your team name or add/remove participants from your team, please contact your organisation’s Coordinator.
Need Help?
You can access both by clicking the relevant headers at the top of this page. The Participants Guide covers everything you need to know about Marchathon, while the FAQs answer the most common questions from both participants and coordinators.
Stay Connected During the Challenge
Your organisation’s internal Coordinator, together with the national Coordinators at the NTA, will keep in touch throughout the challenge to update you on:
- Competitions
- Prizes
- Leaderboards
- Important announcements
Please keep an eye out for emails during the challenge so you do not miss any updates.
You can also follow us on social media for regular updates, tips on the challenge, competitions and to see who’s climbing the leaderboard!!
| TFI Smarter Travel Social Media |
| Instagram: @tfismartertravel |
| X: @TFISmartTravel |
My takeaway from this challenge is I can find time to walk more/do light physical activities during my day and it helps to clear my mind.
Marchathon Step Challenge Participant, 2024
Resources for Coordinators
A wide range of resources is available to help you prepare for, promote, and fully enjoy Marchathon. These can be used on intranets, emails, social media, newsletters, or as posters.
| Promotional Resources | Social Media Resources | Coordinator Resources |
| Marchathon Poster A3 | Marchathon Instagram jpeg with Sign Up Now | Participant Guide |
| Marchathon Poster A3 as Gaeilge | Marchathon Instagram jpeg | Coordinator Guide |
| Marchathon Poster A4 | Marchathon Instagram as Gaeilge jpeg with Sign Up Now | Coordinator Editable Graphics |
| Marchathon Poster A4 as Gaeilge | Marchathon Instagram as Gaeilge jpeg | Sample Email, Announcing Marchathon |
| Marchathon Editable Poster | Marchathon Twitter jpeg | Email Schedule and Weekly Coordinators emails |
| Marchathon Email Signature | Marchathon Twitter as Gaeilge jpeg | Marchathon Social Media Cheat Sheet |
| Marchathon Email Signature as Gaeilge jpeg | ||
| Marchathon Email Signature with Sign Up Now as Gaeilge jpeg |
Frequently Asked Questions
The TFI Smarter Travel Step Challenges are inclusive, team-based walking events that encourage everyone to get active and walk on the commute and beyond. They are part of the TFI Smarter Travel programme, which promotes sustainable travel. The challenge aims to build long-term habits of walking and reduce single car journeys, while supporting wellbeing and participation for all.
If your team have less than 3 members, please contact your organisation’s Step Challenge coordinator, who can help match you with other teams that need members.
Placement on the leaderboard is determined by the team’s average step count. The highest‑ranking teams on the overall leaderboard will win the overall top prizes. For full details of the prizes available, please see the Competitions and Prizes page.
There are plenty of additional opportunities to win prizes throughout the challenge, including photo competitions, quizzes, and more.
Prizes and spot prizes will be awarded at random by the NTA. In the event of any dispute regarding the rules, conduct, results, or any other matters relating to the Step Challenge, the organisers’ decision will be final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into.
Positions are determined based on the average steps per team member, so teams of different sizes can compete fairly. Weekly leaderboards are cumulative, meaning week 2 includes steps from week 1 and so on.
There is one overall leaderboard, which can be filtered by:
- Desk-based teams
- Non-desk-based teams
Organisations can also view their organisation-specific leaderboard by selecting ‘organisation only’ when viewing the leaderboard on the Active Travel Logger.
Yes, if you have access to smartphone, tablet or PC, you can participate.
All participants must log their activity on the Active Travel Logger website. As long as one member of your team can log the activity once a week during the Challenge, you are welcome to participate.
If you do not have access to a device that can access the Active Travel Logger website, unfortunately wont be able to take part.
We would love to offer everyone the chance to participate; however our remit is to work with employers who have signed up to implement travel plans as part of the TFI Smarter Travel Programme. If you’d like to find out more about becoming a TFI Smarter Travel Programme Partner, please get in touch by emailing stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie
If you forget to wear your step counter on a particular day, you can use the step count from another day where you had similar physical activity levels.
This applies to both applications and smart devices.
Log in to the Active Travel Logger. and click ‘Log my Activity’. You can enter steps for the current day or for any of the previous 8 days.
If needed, your team captain can log your steps for you, just make sure to share your step totals in time for the weekly leaderboard deadline.
- The deadline to log steps each week is usually Monday at 2pm.
- If Monday is a bank holiday, the deadline is extended to Tuesday at 2pm
Yes they do. You can continue to log your activity manually on the Active Travel Logger website, or you can get your Team Captain to log your steps on your behalf.
Only activities which can be recorded by your step counter are included.
So aerobics, running and gardening are fine – but cycling, swimming or other activities are not included.
The exception being wheelchair users who should convert distance to steps using this formula:
1 km = 1,250 steps
Walking anywhere, anytime will count. Walking to or part of the way to work is a great way to increase your steps, to feel good and to reduce your personal and environmental travel costs.
You can track distance travelled using a smart app, fitness tracker, or a bicycle odometer. Convert your distance to steps using this formula:
1 km = 1,250 steps
Log your steps on the Active Travel Logger or ask your team captain to log them for you.
Source of conversion information: 10,000 Steps.
This is a question Team Captains are asked on registration. Team captains should answer ‘yes’ if most members of your team are based at a desk during working hours.
Your organisations coordinator has the ability to remove participants from a team up until the first leaderboard is published. As the challenge is focused on inclusion, participation and increasing activity levels we ask that any individual who wishes to drop out of the challenge confirm via email that they wish to be removed prior to removing them from a team. Participants should not be removed from a team if they have not requested it.
Please contact stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie with the details if a team member wishes to be removed from your team after the first leaderboard has been published. If a team member is being substituted or is dropping out, please let us know as soon as possible.
If you miss the deadline your steps will not appear on that specific weeks Leaderboard.
You are able to backlog steps for the previous 8 days however and your steps will appear on the subsequent Leaderboard.
The weekly leaderboards are currently calculated on a cumulative basis.
The deadline for logging steps for the previous week, up to and including Sunday, is 2pm the following Monday.
If needed you can ask your captain to log your steps for you if you are unable to do so yourself for any reason in time for the deadline.
If you enter the wrong number of steps you should log back into your Active Travel Logger account as soon as possible and resubmit your steps for the date in question.
If you are unable to do so please ask your team captain to do so on your behalf.
Remember you can log your steps for the previous 8 days,
Refresh the page or try a different browser. If the issue continues, check FAQs where the solution can likely be found. If the issue still remains unresolved contact your organisation’s Step Challenge coordinator or email stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie with details and screenshots. For internet connection issues on campus or at work, contact your IT department.
If you have any questions that are not answered on this page, please contact us, email stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie
Log in to the Active Travel Logger account.. Click Contact in the top right corner of the screen. The contact details for your organisation’s coordinator will be listed there.
If you do not see an option to join the current Step Challenge, it is usually because you have already joined the challenge by accepting an invitation from a team member.
Go to your dashboard and click My Current Challenges. This should confirm that you are already part of the current Step Challenge. If you are still unsure contact your coordinator or email stepchallenge@nationaltransport.ie where a member of our team will be able to help you.
If you have been assigned coordinators access you should see a blue banner when you first login to the Active Travel Logger for the given challenge.
You are invited to read and accept the terms and conditions. Once you have done so you will have coordinators access. If you are unsure please contact stepchallenge@nationtransport.ie
From the login page on the Active Travel Logger click ‘Forgot your password?’ and you enter the email address you used to create your Active Travel Logger profile.
If you do not receive the reset password email there are a few steps you can follow:
- Double check you have spelt the email correctly and you are using the correct email address.
- Check spam folder – some domains tend to misdirect the email to here.
- Depending on your email security, it may have sent the mail into quarantine. You can retrieve it here: https://protection.office.com/quarantine.
Terms and Conditions
Use of this site constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions. The National Transport Authority reserves the right to make changes to this site and these terms and conditions at any time.
The content contained within this site is for personal use only. All text, graphics and selection, layout and arrangement thereof and all materials on this website are the copyright of the National Transport Authority. If you wish to use our content, please contact us for further information.
This website contains links to other websites operated by third parties over whom we have no control. Such links are provided for your convenience only and the National Transport Authority accepts no responsibility or liability in respect of the content or use of other websites.
Details of prizes for TFI Smarter Travel Challenges will be announced on the relevant prizes pages.
Prize winners names/ organisation will be published on our website, reports, social media and other events/ publications associated with the TFI Smarter Travel programmes and the National Transport Authority.
Winners may also be asked to participate in a publicity shoot. By participating in any photo shoots associated with Authority challenges or events, you consent to the use/ publication by the Authority of these images.
To be eligible for Prizes, winners must be resident in the Republic of Ireland, and be employees of an active TFI Smarter Travel Workplaces Partner organisation.
In the event of any dispute regarding the rules, conduct, results and all other matters relating to TFI Smarter Travel Competitions or Challenges, the decision of the organiser shall be final and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.
The Authority reserves the right to award all, some or none of the prizes associated with any event or challenge.