We earned this weather.

We have endured months and months of cold, gray and rainy days.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette County Chief Executive Dan Onorato talks with Sonya Pugh, who works in the county controller's office, as they walk along Smithfield Street, Downtown. Mr. Onorato was leading about 40 county workers from the courthouse to Station Square kicking off the "10,000 Steps Challenge." Click photo for larger image.

And so, yesterday, when the temperature was 66 degrees, the sun was shining and there was a light breeze, one of the beneficiaries was Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, who led about 40 county employees on a walk to Station Square to kick off a health program.

The crowd arrived at Station Square looking like it needed a parade permit, with television cameramen and photographers running in front, then spinning to get the best shot of Mr. Onorato & Co. on the Smithfield Street Bridge. Then Mr. Onorato, saying he was late for a meeting, took a photo with the crowd, hopped into a waiting sport utility vehicle and drove away, leaving county workers to walk back.

The idea behind the campaign was to start the "10,000 Steps Challenge," a program to help keep county workers healthy. The mile from the courthouse to Station Square and back accounted for about 2,000 of those steps, depending on the length of the strides of the various walkers.

Onorato told the gathered walkers that what's good for them is good for the county.

He said since the county's health care costs are rising, keeping employees well makes financial sense. In the past four years, Allegheny County's health insurance costs rose 54 percent, from $35 million to $54 million.

"If you have a wellness program you can keep the premiums down," he said.

Mr. Onorato may have walked only half a mile during the lunch hour, but he noted that when he gets home, generally, he walks a four-mile loop from his house to Bellevue and back.

Unlike the cold weather on April 18 when the "National Walk @ Lunch" program was launched, yesterday's was more like San Diego's than Pittsburgh's.

Before county employees reached the Smithfield Street Bridge, Mr. Onorato had taken off his dark suit jacket.

"It's the perfect day to walk," he said as he crossed the bridge, and then turned to look up the river. "I don't even feel hot with a suit on. It's breezy, it's perfect."