SEQUIM — The Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center is taking registrations for its first Sequim New Year Fitness Challenge on Saturday, Jan. 29.
The friendly competition is intended to help keep people fit during the fattening holiday season and dark days of winter.
“It gives people a reason to exercise during the holiday season, and it’s also a personal challenge,” said SARC fitness trainer Brandon Stoppani, who is organizing the event.
Stoppani also teaches weight management, self-defense and nutrition and exercise at the 610 N. Fifth Ave. public fitness facility.
“It gives them a benchmark in which to improve. It’s a workout with strength benefits.”
Prizes are being donated to winners of each age category who have the shortest times completing two stages of exercise.
Challenge participants will be broken into age groups: men ages 15-34, 35-54 and 55 and older, and women ages 15-29, 30-49 and 50 and older.
Applicants must sign up by Jan. 1, and preregistration is required with a fee of $20 per passholder and $30 for nonpassholders.
Stoppani said he has put the word out, inviting other fitness center members in the area to participate in the competition.
“We don’t have anything like this in the area,” Stoppani said, adding he brought the idea from his native town of Oxford, England.
He moved to Sequim 10 years ago to be with family and has been a U.S. citizen for three years.
Already, Stoppani said, prize donations have been made by Home Depot, Sunny Farms Country Store and Radio Shack. Other commitments are expected to come in, he said.
The challenge comes in two parts.
The first involves 10 floors of stair steppers, 40 repetitions of step-ups for each leg, 40 pushups, 500 meters of rowing, 200 jump ropes and sit-ups and two sets of progressive sprints.
The second challenge involves a two-mile run on the treadmill.
Each participant receives a T-shirt, and entries are limited to first-come, first-served.
Participants must sign a form releasing SARC from liability in the event of an injury.
Apply online at www.SARCfitness.com by clicking on the Sequim New Year Fitness Challenge logo.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
