Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 11:45 PM

Nice guys at work, barbarians on the weekend

Marshall Medical employees enjoyed the Barbarians Challenge, and credit TherapyPlus workouts for keeping them in shape for event.

Charlie Cook, director of pharmacy at Marshall South, and Jeff Stuart, clinical analyst in the Marshall Medical IT department, along with some guys from their church, flexed their muscles and joined the brutal Barbarian Challenge 2018. The annual event held at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden included pulling a tractor, lifting kegs, climbing, running and swimming. 

The two did the challenge together last year and said this year’s event was even better. 

“We had to accomplish the individual 10K first and it was even better than last year,” Cook said. “We got to swim Noccalula Falls this year as part of the race and that was a very cool experience.”

Also, this was the first year the Barbarian had a Team event where challengers were allowed to work with their buddies to get over obstacles. 

“The obstacles pushed you to depend on each other to get through and four out of the five team members had to get over the obstacle to move to the next one,” he said. “It was defiantly a challenge but we made it through together and got to have an awesome time challenging ourselves and spending time together,” Cook said.

Stuart agreed, saying the only thing that made it better for him was that his wife also competed. 

“Last year she fell on one of the obstacles and injured her left side pretty early on,” he said. “This year, she completed the course with her sister. She beat that same obstacle, and really enjoyed herself.”

Stuart, on the other hand, said he expected to die from the heat and the hills. 

“I wanted to make it across the finish line simply to tell Charlie that my impending death was all his fault for getting me into this,” he laughed. “However, after the team event, I had to admit that the whole experience was fantastic and uplifting. I really believe that if I didn’t have these types of events to train and prepare for, I would be in much poorer health than I already am.”

Cook agreed, giving a lot of credit for the ability to complete such a difficult course to his workouts at TherapyPlus, where both guys work out regularly. 

“Personally I would say having all we have at TherapyPlus to get ready for these races and events, and getting to do something like this with close brothers in Christ was a tremendous blessing!”