The Student Recreation Center is hosting an indoor cycling competition this week against the University of Arkansas’s recreational sports department to promote the football rivalry between both schools before the game Saturday. The #BTHOarkansas Indoor Cycle Distance Challenge began Monday and will continue until Friday.
DeAun Woosley, director of fitness and programs at the REC, said anyone who participates in a cycling class will contribute to that day’s total mileage.
After the last class ends Friday afternoon, the totals will be compiled and compared with Arkansas’ mileage, Woosley said.
Casey Fant, Arkansas recreation department assistant fitness director, said the winning university gets bragging rights while participating in a fun method of exercise.
During each day of the week, all Rec cycling classes are free and anyone can walk in and start pedaling.
The event has been in the works since the spring, Woosley said. After Arkansas participated in the same event last year against another university, Fant contacted Woosley and said Arkansas wanted to do the challenge against A&M this year.
Fant said she approached Texas A&M hoping to jumpstart the rivalry between the two schools before the football game.
The challenge will provide an outlet for students to “beat the hell out of” Arkansas in their own way, said Thomas Human, agricultural economics junior.
“I’m doing it to beat the hell out of Arkansas in another way, before I go up to Arlington to watch us beat the [football team] hell out of them again,” Human said. “It’s also a good way to see what else the Rec has to offer besides just the weight room.”
Human said the event will help A&M remain one of the fittest campuses in the nation “by providing alternative ways to both work out and assert our dominance in the SEC.”