Harleston Leisure Centre staff take on mammoth 24-hour workout for Ballboys charity
Two gym employees undertook a mammoth 24-hour workout challenge last week, with a little bit of help from their customers.
Harleston Leisure Centre employees Ross Lomax and Chris Lown worked up quite a sweat as they raised more than £1,000 for charity by working out, non-stop, for an entire day.
Starting on Friday and ending on Saturday, personal trainer Ross spent night and day lifting weights while maintenance man Chris hopped on the treadmill, raising money for testicular cancer charity Ballboys and Diss and Harleston Guide Dogs, respectively.
“I’m obsessed with endurance tests,” said Ross. “I’m not very good at running – my thing is working out, so I thought I would come up with an endurance test.”
The 30-year-old gave new meaning to the term ‘full body exercise’ by using the bench press, leg extensions and other gym equipment – starting at 5pm on Friday, going through the night before eventually finishing at the same time on Saturday.
“I made sure there was 10 minutes of cardio every hour and I split it up into eight different workouts,” he added.
Starting slightly later at 8pm on Friday, Chris began his challenge to walk 100 miles by the following evening. Disaster struck when, seven hours and 57.7 miles in, the father-of-five popped a ligament in his big toe, leaving him unable to finish the remaining 42 miles.
Remarkably, after a call to arms on social media in the early hours of Saturday, around half-a-dozen fitness fanatics turned up outside the gym, in Wilderness Lane, to complete his run for him.
“It made my day,” added the 50-year-old. “I was gutted I couldn’t finish it, but it was just brilliant seeing people come in to finish the last few miles.”
Ross added: “We had three people on the treadmill by 9am.
“I was surprised because it was so early, but working at the gym, I know what people here are like – they’re a really tight-knit community, and they’re always up for a challenge.
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