Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre hosted a 9/11 Tribute Memorial Workout on Sept. 9, in honour of the 412 emergency workers who lost their lives during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.
The annual event had participants alongside firefighters from both Cochrane and Calgary perform 412 reps of different exercises while running a kilometre between sets. Firefighters completed the workout while wearing their protective equipment.
Fitness and wellness coordinator Stephanie Morello outlined the different exercises that every participant had to complete in the span of 45 minutes.
“We start with 100 squats, we run to warm up and then we do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 56 burpees, 56 hip bridges and we run in between each of those components or spin on a spin bike,” Morello explained.
Through each exercise, Morello said she hoped every participant was thinking about every emergency worker who perished in the 2001 attacks, and saw the gruelling workout as a way of honouring their memory.
“One of my very good friends was in the first ambulance from Canada on-site on 9/11. She lives in Niagara, so I think of her,” Morello said.
The event started in 2013, when Cochrane resident Jeremie Holt, a firefighter for Lincoln Park Fire Station No. 20 in Calgary, wanted to create a 9/11 memorial workout. After inquiring with Spray Lakes for a space to do the workout, a fitness bootcamp taking place asked if they could participate.
“We just wanted to do a fun memorial workout and everyone wanted to join us. It escalated from there and got bigger and bigger every year and it’s better to have more people sweating with you,” Holt said.
Morello worked with Holt to transform the event to remember every first responder. Holt is proud to see members of the community participate every year.
“It’s nice to have people come out and join us,” Holt said. “They get to see how tough working out in the gear is. A lot of people don’t understand our gear is made to be in fires so it doesn’t breathe, it’s really hot and it makes everything quite harder.”
Although he did not have the chance to look around since he was a participant, he thinks it is motivational for everyone when more people show up.
“Hopefully next year we have more people show and it keeps growing and growing,” Holt said. “Anyone can join us for this. It is hard, but it is for a good cause.”
Holt outlined the gruelling workout can be done at anyone’s preferred pace and it serves to have people gather and remember what was lost, more than anything else.
Morello and Holt invite anyone who is interested to save the date and participate in next year’s event.
“This is an annual event, it’s free to everyone in Cochrane and beyond, so mark your calendars,” Morello said. “We will do it again for our 10th year [in 2023] and I’d like to see it get bigger and better.”
