In an effort to promote a healthy lifestyle among employees, the Village of Pinehurst and FirstHealth’s Center for Health and Fitness are putting on a triathlon Saturday.

Only for employees of the two organizations, the event will consist of a 400-meter swim, a 13-mile bike ride and a 5K (3.1 mile) run.

Eighteen employees from the Village and 10 from the fitness center will participate in the triathlon, which begins at 7:30 a.m. It starts at the health and fitness center with the swim, then the bike portion goes through the village and the run takes place on the village's greenways.

Representatives from both sides say the event is an example of companies responding to input from employees as they promote health and a healthy workplace.

“We see this as a normal outgrowth of MooreFit,” said John Caliri, operations director for the fitness center. “What I would hope is that other companies see that it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or involved. This is going to be two hours on a Saturday where some employees are going to get together and do something healthy. Its not a major production. It’s easy to do.”

MooreFit is a county-wide initiative that encourages businesses to promote healthy lifestyle choices to their employees through education and friendly competitions.

The joint effort was initiated by the village’s wellness committee after input from employees. Village staff then took the idea to the Center for Health and Fitness and asked for help putting the triathlon together.

“John (Caliri) said, ‘Can our employees do it, too?’ and then we proceeded down a joint path,” said Natalie Dean, Pinehurst’s assistant village manager. Dean said the village is continually promoting a healthy lifestyle and workplace for its employees. It has done several weight loss challenges and has programs in place for healthy eating, but the triathlon was borne from a request from some of the village’s healthier employees who were seeking support to maintain their healthy lifestyle.

This is the second year that the fitness center has offered its employees the opportunity to participate in a triathlon.

“Last year, we had 20 people involved,” Caliri said. “And this year we just built on the idea that they (village employees) wanted to do.”

Many of the logistics of the triathlon had been worked out last year, making this year’s event very easy to organize.

“Its not as hard at it seems,” Dean said. “The key is to tap into the resources you have.”

For Caliri, the event is about an overarching theme, rather than just one event.

“The point I thought that was important to get across is, you have two larger organizations in the area that are working together and it came out of Moore Fit. To me, its about two organizations working together for the employees and their health.”

He praised the village’s wellness committee and its effort to promote a healthy lifestyle for its employees and provide them with a healthy work environment.

“Its constant and consistently offering different things,” he said of the program. “An employee triathlon is not for everybody, but there is never one thing that works for everybody, so that is why you keep trying different things and tossing new ideas out.”

It is the hope that the collaboration will foster future partnerships between other businesses that will result in healthy activities for employees.

“What’s important is what the village did is they listened to their staff. You don’t want to just encourage the not fit to get fit, you also want to encourage the people who are fit to maintain it,” Caliri said.

Dean added, “For us, it’s not just about business it’s about taking care of your employees.”