The strength, endurance and determination of competitors were put to the test during the inaugural Force Fitness Challenge that was held Saturday at Fresh Air Fitness’ facility near Estevan.
Fifteen two-person teams went through four different events over the course of four hours. Twelve women’s teams and three men’s teams were entered.
The first event saw them go through a six-minute competition that was divided into two parts. First they had to pass a medicine ball back and forth over a wall as many times as possible in four minutes.
“Once they were finished that, they started to flip a tire. And they flipped the tire back and forth to each other for another two minutes,” said Debby Knight, who co-founded Fresh Air Fitness along with Peggy Rohatyn.
The next event saw teams drag a tire back and forth as many times as possible in four minutes. Then they had to jog to the monkey bars and hang for as long as they could.
Knight said the third event was the toughest. It started with a 100-metre farmer carry in which they had to carry weighted bars for 100 metres. Then they had to perform 50 lunges on each leg, 100 squats and 50 burpees.
A burpee combines a squat and a push-up.
Once they finished, they had to complete another 100-metre farmer carry.
“There was only one team that didn’t get through the whole event, and there were some of them that they were just going on pure will. They left it all out there.”
The final event took them through the park’s trails while carrying a gurney made of wood. They stopped at four separate checkpoints and picked up a heavy sand bag with an image.
From there, they memorized a puzzle board with nine images, went to the finish line and duplicated the order the pictures were in using the sand bags.
“There are some tough people out there. Every person that tried that event today, they gave it their all. And then some,” said Knight. “They did really well. I was really surprised that at the point in the day where they’re reaching complete exhaustion, they’re still able to think clearly enough to come back and put that puzzle together. There wasn’t one team that had to go out and check that puzzle again.”
Agnes Garrioch and Jessica Pele finished first in the women’s division, followed by Casey DeRosier and Jamie Lees in second and Lesley Dukart and Jennifer Gervais in third.
Aaron Wijes and Andreas Laud were first in the men’s competition, with Ron Wyonch and Fred Sheldon in second and Brad Tinant and Adam Currie in third.
Teams received pointed based on their time or how many times they completed a task.
Knight and Rohatyn came up with the idea about a year ago of having an obstacle course event at Fresh Air Fitness. Then they mentioned it to Jennifer Olfert of JO Fit, to see if she would be interested in being involved. Olfert and Tasha Tinant came up with the idea for the events.
“Full credit to them for getting it all figured out and how it was all going to work and what people can do and get it all to work together,” said Knight.
Sponsors also allowed them to make the event happen.
While it was a competitive event, Knight stressed it was a very supportive atmosphere.
“They cheer on the team that’s right in front of them just as hard as they cheer on the team that’s behind them and support each other all of the way through,” she said.
Lunch and refreshments were served after the challenge was finished, and Knight loved hearing the athletes talk about their sense of accomplishment once the challenge was finished.
The challenge was also an opportunity to showcase Fresh Air Fitness and the different stations it has to help people with their fitness goals.
Knight expects this will become an annual event. They might be able to add one more event, but participants were “spent” after four, Knight said.
More teams could be added, because they capped the number of tandems at 15. Since it was such a busy weekend in Estevan due to the Rafferty Rumble, some of the participants had other commitments in the afternoon, so the organizing committee for the challenge wanted to have the events finished as close to noon as possible.
