Challenge sponsored by Richter motivates workouts
Rebekah Liszewski hates cardio. The junior finance and accounting double major would rather do almost anything than spend her afternoon on a treadmill, but when she heard about the Richter Center’s Ironman Fitness Challenge, she was intrigued.
“I saw this as the perfect opportunity to maybe not hate cardio so much,” she said.
The challenge isn’t a small undertaking. Participants have 90 days to walk or run 26.2 miles, bike 112 miles and swim 2.5 miles or row 20,000 meters.
“I’ve gone the past two days,” she said. “Every day I go, I do just a little bit at a time. Not pushing myself, but gradually getting a little bit better.”
Robert DeFazio, the director of the Center for Activities, Recreation and Leadership at the Richter Center, who helped orchestrate the event, said one of the main purposes of the challenge is for people like Liszewski.
“We do the fitness challenges in the second semester purposefully,” DeFazio said. “The weather stinks, so you can’t get outdoors. It’s for people who have New Year’s resolutions or want to get in shape to go on spring break. Or for people looking for that extra motivation.”
One of those people is Bobby Nguyen, a junior computer science and cybersecurity double major, who tries his best to make it to the gym at 6 a.m.
“I like to challenge myself,” Nguyen said. “Waking up early hasn’t been super successful so far, so I go in the afternoon instead.”
One of the features of this year’s fitness challenge is an app called Strava that allows participants to log and track progress.
A change from last year’s partner fitness challenge that used LFconnect, which synched with the cardio machines, Strava has participants manually log results. It also puts competitors in a group with all 130 plus participants at St. Bonaventure currently fighting their way to the finish line and allows users to see their daily activity alongside others.
“It motivates me,” Liszewski said. “It kind of sucks because you can see some people at it every day doing really well, but I’m very competitive, and it makes me push myself harder, knowing there are other people doing more work than I am.”
Nguyen agrees; he loves the social media aspect of the challenge and looking at the overall leaderboard.
“I like to see where I stand in all these people,” he said. “It makes me push myself every single day, trying to beat the people above me.”
The main attraction to the challenge is that it’s for everybody. Regardless of one’s fitness level, all three agreed the goals are within reach, and that if someone stays dedicated, it can change their outlook on fitness.
“It worked out great for me last year,” Nguyen said, who participated with a partner. “I had a whole body transformation.”
“It seems like a lot of work, but over 90 days, it’s really not,” Liszewski said. “It’s really nice for people like me who don’t want to push themselves too hard, but do want motivation.”
Nguyen said the hardest part for him isn’t the workout, it’s finding time in his already jam-packed schedule and passing up a potential nap.
Despite the Feb. 4 start date, students, faculty and staff are still open and encouraged to join. Interested individuals can email richtercenter@sbu.edu to sign-up.
As an added incentive, those able to complete the challenge receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes like an Apple watch, new sneakers and more.
“We encourage everyone that’s participating to keep it going,” DeFazio said. “Also, encourage others along the way if they get frustrated. For anyone that’s not signed up, it’s not too late. There’s plenty of time to get it done.”
By Nathan Desutter, Contributing Writer
desuttn18@bonaventure.edu
