The Navy Seal Challenge returns to the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Complex (CRC) on March 7, 2017. This year, the CRC is teaming up with the Navy to provide interaction with Navy Seals during the event. The challenge will focus primarily on three of the five dimensions of well-being: social, emotional, and physical. It takes resiliency and confidence to compete with our nation’s elite group of military personnel. This year, will you make the cut?

The fourth year hosting the event, the CRC is preparing for a turn out larger than any before. This is an HLP (Healthy Lifestyle Programs) wide event that will challenge the physical well-being of all participants through a rigorous course of physical fitness activities. Participants will strengthen their social well-being through building comradery at each of the stations with the friends they bring and the new friends they will meet. The emotional well-being of participants is tested while pushing themselves to their limits in what is considered one of the most difficult PST (physical screening tests) in the nation.

The partnership with the Navy sets this year’s competition apart from the previous years. The Navy is providing support for event oversight, which means that actual Navy Seals will be heading and running the activity stations. Elevation of this year’s event was a goal that was mutually approached by both the CRC and the Navy according to Associate Director of Healthy Lifestyle Programs, Caroline Dotts.

“We are excited about the opportunity to enlist the support of the Navy ROTC branch on campus and hopefully increase overall participation this year,” she said.

Participants are encouraged to complete the events in the order that is true to the actual PST that Navy Seals must complete. The natural order of the events are swim, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and run. While not everyone is required to complete all five events, it is necessary in order to receive the real Navy Seal experience. Plus, there are incentives for those that compete in all five events. An hour and a half time limit is given to complete all five stations. If you are able to complete all five in time, you will see how you measure to our nation’s finest soldiers.

 Prizes this year are well worth the participation. If you complete all five stations you are entered to win a three pack certificate for massage therapy at the CRC, one ORGT trip voucher for two, one competitive sports team registration pass, or a free pass for a stroke development class. The grand prize drawing will be for a 50 inch 4K Vizio TV. The top male and female that compete in all five stations will win a Fitbit Charge 2, and their name will be engraved on a plaque that will be displayed in the CRC trophy case for members and guests of the CRC to see. T-shirts will be given to the first 250 to complete at least three events. There will also be Navy swag distributed at each of the station.

If the prizes aren’t enough, Dotts says that there is more for people to gain from the challenge than simply the tangible.

“The most beneficial thing participants will take away is an awareness of what they are capable of doing in five different but integrated realms of physical activity,” she said.

Dotts believes that the challenge encourages physical well-being awareness by allowing participants to see their baseline fitness level in the events that they choose to compete in. People will benefit from social activity awareness through the comradery of the event as well. She said being in the moment and having others cheer you on, while still being competitive in a friendly atmosphere is an important component in the CRC’s mission for overall health and well-being.

If you believe that you are capable of competing with America’s elite group of individuals, then register for this year’s Navy Seal Challenge. Pre-registering for this free event online will get you a fast pass to skip to the front of each line during the event. Visit www.crc.gatech.edu for more information.