Trek to Talloires, a university-wide personal fitness challenge, has attracted a large number of student and faculty participants in the less than two months since its inception.
In the challenge, participants travel on a colorful virtual route from Medford to Talloires, France by keeping a log of their daily physical activities like biking, walking and swimming. Participants can increase their chances of winning different weekly prizes by logging more hours of activity.
The Trek to Talloires challenge was first issued to the Tufts community in a Jan. 6 e-mail from University President Lawrence Bacow. It has attracted more than 1,000 participants as of the start of this month, according to head crew coach Gary Caldwell. It will continue until April 12.
Caldwell's experience participating in a similar program, which helped him lose 50 pounds, served as the inspiration for the challenge.
He originally proposed the virtual challenge to Director of Athletics Bill Gehling last year, hoping to use it to reunite rowing alumni and raise funds.
The Department of Human Resources suggested increasing the scale of implementation as part of the Healthy @ Tufts wellness initiative, a campaign that advocates healthy lifestyles throughout campus, and partnered with Caldwell and women's crew coach Brian Dawe to execute the plan.
Caldwell said that Talloires, a village in eastern France that is host to the Tufts European Center, was chosen as the destination after he mentioned his idea to Gabriella Goldstein, the center's administrative director.
Goldstein described the satellite campus in France as a "jewel in the crown of Tufts" and said that she has been amazed by the Tufts community's response to the challenge.
"I have seen a lot of names [of participants in the fitness initiative] who have been to Talloires and I hope that those who signed up have been motivated by their experience at Talloires," Goldstein said.
Gehling said that Trek to Talloires encourages more people on campus to be part of the university-wide fitness concept, because the President's Marathon Challenge is an event that incorporates only a small portion of the student and faculty population.
Don Megerle, director of the President's Marathon Challenge, echoed these sentiments and said that the Trek, which concludes a week before the Boston Marathon, invites "modest athletes, who have not had the chance to participate" to contribute to the wellness initiative.
"[The marathon] is a life-changing event, and I think the people who are involved in Trek to Talloires will have the same experience," he said.
Gehling hopes to repeat this challenge in the future because of the benefits that it brings to the campus.
"Exercise is important in any community, but certainly in a community where there is a lot of stress," he said. "It is obviously important to have an outlet for stress but it's important to have a well-rounded sense of health, eating well, sleeping well and getting exercise."
Caldwell said that this experience showed him how flexible and responsive members of the Tufts community are to suggestions.
"It amazes me how we seize opportunities and make the most of it. This shows how we are different from other institutions of higher education," Caldwell said.
Tufts University Human Resources Benefits Office, Fallon Community Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan are sponsoring the challenge. In addition to the weekly prizes, two grand prizes will be awarded at the challenge's conclusion.
