Local gym holds weekend-long running challenge for charity

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The challenge was to run 48 miles in 48 hours.

So, at four-hour intervals throughout this past weekend, members at Valley Stream’s K-Fit Boutique Gym would venture out into the cold, jog down to Hendrickson Park and make two circuits around the pond before returning — an exactly four-mile trek. For each mile each participant ran, the gym would donate $1 to a veterans mental health charity, and for each person who completed the entire challenge the gym would donate $100.

“I don’t know if you see any other gym doing something like this,” said Erik Antorbeza, a Marine Corps veteran, trainer at K-Fit and brother of the gym’s owner, Karina Melo. “Normal people don’t do this. They absolutely do not.”

Antorbeza was the mastermind behind the challenge, Melo said, and they chose to help veterans struggling with mental health issues due to Antorbeza’s own personal experience with colleagues of his dying by suicide.

“We love challenges here at the gym, and a running challenge is very Covid friendly,” Melo said. “To donate was a no brainer considering my brother’s background.”

Others there said they were taking part to support Antorbeza. Marcos Bustamante was there with his family, all of whom are members of K-Fit. “He’s ex-military so we thought, ‘we gotta go,’” he said. “It’s for a good cause and what’s a challenge?”

Yaser Huda, who was stationed alongside Antorbeza in Japan said that veterans struggling from mental health issues and a lack of support was all too common.

“He and I served,” he said, “and we know a lot of vets who have unfortunately taken their lives, and I can’t imagine the pain that they went through, so this is my way of giving back.”

Overall six participants were able to complete the grueling challenge among 60 who took part. Once the weekend was complete, Antorbeza, who left the corps in August, said he felt like home after eight years of surrounding himself with people pushing themselves to the limit.

“It’s amazing I’m able to come back here and do it with you,” he said.