Whew! It’s been a few days since we (the fabulous summer 2011 interns of Vivecoach: Sonja, Kim, Kunal, and I, Tina) launched our own custom challenge among our friends, provocatively entitled, My friends are fitter than your friends. It’s a two-week challenge that tracks minutes of exercise, between four teams capped at 10 members max. Adding to the fun, each team is colorfully named:

- Sonja’s Supersonic Power Squad

- Kimbo’s Exercise Fanatics (Such zeal! Vigor! Passion!)

- The Power Plant (Starting to see a theme here?)

- Tina’s Torpor-busters! (Alliteration is always a plus…)

After the initial bustle of inviting friends and selecting eye-catching challenge images to upload, all we had left to do was wait for the challenge to start and hope that our friends would catch on. I’ll admit I was nervous—I had only briefly explained the Vivecoach concept to my friends before blitzing them with invitations, and wondered if they would have trouble getting around the site. Even worse, would they ignore my invites?

I didn’t need to worry—by today, five days in, (with barely any reminders on my part), my team has amassed an impressive total of 2,784 minutes. On average, that’s 278 minutes, or more than four hours, per person! Never mind, of course, the fact that Sonja’s team is up to 3,895 minutes… the competition is on!

I’ve gone from cheering without abandon when anyone tracks his or her exercise to feeling just slightly competitive when Kim’s friend “B-fit B-rad” logs yet another 120-minute workout. And I’m not the only one; my buddy “Strugglebus,” in particular, is quite eager to one-up all other competitors. After all, gift cards (and our health) are at stake.

So…who will get fitter? Who will win? More importantly, will any drama unfold in a week’s time?! Stay tuned!