Environmental Factor, June 2011, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Employees enjoy rites of spring during Health and Fitness Week
By Eddy Ball and Matt Goad
June 2011
NIEHS held its annual Health and Fitness Week May 9-13 with a slate of activities encouraging employees to practice a healthy lifestyle through exercise, balanced nutrition, and weight management. Events included a lecture on laughter and medicine (see story (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2011/june/inside-laughter/index.cfm)), health and fitness demonstrations, Bike to Work Day, and many fun activities, such as Wii games, a golf outing, a 2-mile walk, and line dancing, that promote active participation geared to an individual's own pace.
Many of the highlights of Health and Fitness Week involve good-natured and often longstanding rivalry among very talented amateur athletes in competitive events, such as the Rogathon 5K marathon, basketball contests, and the fast-paced table tennis tournament that made the F-module entry hall sound like a firing range, as opponents sent balls rapidly back and forth across the net.
(Matt Goad is a contract writer with the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)
Number 57, Liam O'Fallon, led the pack to start the Rogathon 5K. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
Jeff Stumpf took his 13-month-old son, Cameron, along during the Rogathon 5K. Stumpf finished ninth overall. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
O'Fallon, left, and Bonnie Joubert were the men's and women's winners of the Rogathon 5K, which was named in honor of retired race director Walter Rogan. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
Elena Braithwaite won the women's basketball triple-threat challenge, edging out defending champion Stephanie Bullock-Allen and Claudine Cates by one point. Bullock-Allen captured second place in the playoff. D. A. Leathers won in the men's division, finishing ahead of six-time champion A. G. Carrington. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
The three-on-three tournament drew about 40 spectators to the basketball court across from F Module, to cheer, jeer, hoot, and holler their champions on. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
Gordon Caviness put up a shot over Ron Altiery in the three-on-three round robin tournament. Caviness and team members Eric Potts and Carrington overcame the best efforts of Altiery, Antonio Gatling, and Sha-Mel Riggins in the final game to win first place, avenging a loss from last year. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
Altiery fights to get a shot off over Potts. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
And the bragging rights - at least until next spring, that is - go to the winners, shown left to right, Caviness, Carrington, and Potts. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)
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