PORT ANGELES — The Olympic Peninsula Wellness Coalition is hoping to get residents and business people to join the Olympic Discovery Virtual Trail Challenge.
Dan Maguire, executive director of the Clallam Family YMCA, told a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce audience Monday that teams formed by businesses or groups of friends will monitor their physical activity and track it — virtually — along a map of the 116-mile Olympic Discovery Trail.
Kickoff challenge
A kickoff of the challenge will be held Sept. 20 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Port Angeles City Pier, Maguire told the chamber at its weekly luncheon Monday at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
The kickoff event will include information on yoga, aerobics, walking and other forms of exercise.
The Olympic Discovery Trail stretches in completed hunks from LaPush to Port Townsend.
“The great thing about this challenge is that people can make their own personal goals,” Maguire said.
“Maybe they will decide to go just between LaPush and Sappho, which is 24 miles.
“In the 40 days of the challenge, that is roughly a mile every other day.
“A person who has never exercised before can commit to standing behind their chair and walking in place while they watch ‘Oprah,’ or someone else might go back and forth between Port Townsend and LaPush [virtually] multiple times in the 40 days.
“But really it is those people who have never exercised before that I am really excited about getting involved because the others will be fine without this support.”
Maguire said the coalition — which includes doctors, sport clubs, gyms and others interested in health and wellness — was formed to help improve the physical activity of those on the North Olympic Peninsula, and the challenge is one way to work toward that.
“We are living in a time where two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese,” Maguire said.
“By 2015, that will go up to three-fourths — 75 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese.
“The good news is that it is completely fixable.
“This is something we can work on — and statistics show that healthy parents raise healthy kids.”
To get involved, teams can get registration materials or more information by visiting www.ccfymca.org or phoning 360-452-9244.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
