The first Fitness Challenge was born when Marlies Spanjaard realized that she was too lazy to to do any exercise without some sort of motivation. She bounced the idea of incentive based exercise off her brother Fred, and after considering various mandatory fitness routines including weights, cardio and team sports ... and realizing the headache that would be involved in listening to people argue about whether their ultimate Frisbee game should count the same as someone else's 5 mile run or the same as someone else's 10 mile walk … the simple idea of doing universally known sit-ups and push-ups seemed much more appealing. Easy to do, and easy to monitor! It was amazing how many people require money (and pride) as motivation for fitness! … The Fitness Challenge was on its way! The tradition was started: The winner kept part of the money and the rest went to the charity of the winner's choice!

Dates: January, 2001 - September, 2001

Participants: (14) Ian Bartalos, Debbi Davis, Carly Ellis, Stephanie Gaylord, Don Harris, Melanie Mills, Fred Spanjaard, Ingrid Spanjaard, Marlies Spanjaard, Nelleke Spanjaard, Hollister Thomas, Travis Thomas, Jon Warriner, Erin Williams, Laura Barnickol

Winner: Ingrid Spanjaard

Winner's Charity: Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation

Amount Raised for Charity: $70