San Antonio College community members competed in strength, agility, conditioning, and teamwork at the 15th annual Backyard Beast Fitness Challenge Friday at Parking Garage 3. The college’s Kinesiology Club and department hosted the event.
Eighteen four-person teams in three divisions — men’s, women’s and coed — raced through a circuit course of physical challenges.
“We can set it up pretty quickly now,” Kinesiology Program Coordinator Brad Dudney told the Sundial. “Martha Stephensons heads it up in our department and does a lot of work ahead of time. Luckily, we have great volunteers like the EMT people.”
The teams started at the roof of the parking garage, running to the bottom floor and progressing up each level and back to the top while completing various exercises. The challenges included rowing, airdyne biking, carrying a dummy, battling ropes, box jumps, tire flips, med ball throws, and the tough tire pull at the final level.
“It’s important for our students to get the idea of what fitness is, the team concept of the competition and to be able to accomplish something,” Dudney said. “The one thing the competition shows people is what it takes to be fit.”
Dan Herrick, assistant professor of philosophy at SAC, competes with a men’s team and a coed team every semester. Herrick’s men’s team set the record for fastest time at 21 minutes, 41 seconds in the fall.
“There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush of competition,” Herrick said. “You will always go harder here … It’s a great community event to see people I know and promote fitness and health at SAC. And, hopefully, try to win.”
For many participants, the event is a test of both physical and mental strength. Maiwand Jalak, a freshman, competed with his younger brother this year, having just completed Ramadan.
“I’m trying to be better than I was yesterday, doing better every day. I wasn’t fit coming off of Ramadan,” Jalak said. “I ate a lot of food. I tried to get fit. I’m going to try to get fit overall, mentally get my mind right, and be physically in good shape.”
Isabella Robledo, a SAC student who hadn’t competed since 2018, set a personal goal to complete the challenge.
“It was a lot harder than I remembered, but just finishing was an accomplishment,” Robledo said. “My motivation for competing is overall health and my son. I have a five-year-old. He was born right before COVID-19; everything got shut down. I was lucky to stay home with him for a couple of years. I was like, ‘I have to get myself back in shape for him.”
Team Aliens won the men’s division with a time of 26 minutes, 16 seconds. The Island Reds won the women’s division with a time of 38 minutes, 46 seconds. And 4 Gang 3 won the coed division with a time of 26 minutes, 37 seconds.
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