Fittest Individuals
Fittest Team Fittest Individuals Most Improved Teams Most Improved Individuals
Fittest Man Under 50
Joe Ratterman, chief executive officer,
BATS Global Markets, team 1
“Fitness,” declares Joe Ratterman, “is just a big part of my life, all the time.”
So when the chief executive at BATS Global Markets signed on for this year’s Fittest Execs and Fittest Companies Challenge, “there was not a lot I could do that I wasn’t already doing. I run on a regular basis, I eat relatively healthy all the time.”
Sure enough, when he tested in for the competition in September, Ratterman had the highest entry score in the field: 146 points. But, like any good executive, Ratterman is willing to make the good the springboard for the perfect—or the nearly perfect, anyway. A single extra digit on the scoring matrix would have earned the highest possible reading.
“When I looked at the initial results,” he said, “there were a couple of areas I thought were weak where I could potentially improve.” Weak? The guy started this year’s competition with a higher score than all but two others in the field ended with. Ratterman didn’t have a lot of room for improvement, and if the three previous iterations of the Challenge have shown us anything, they’ve demonstrated the difficulty of getting to that 150-point score—it’s been reached by only three people out of nearly 600 competitors.
Nonetheless, with his targets in mind, improvement became a mere matter of want-to. “I didn’t necessarily have a concerted way of going about doing things to improve,” Ratterman said, “it was more a matter of being diligent in my normal fitness routine and hope to get better results.”
Given his own competitive nature, and that of his company, there’s a chance he’ll be chasing that final point in the next installment of the Challenge. “It may make sense,” he said, “for us to recruit other executives for Fittest and Most-Improved teams next year, and see if a few others can get into the program.”
Consider yourselves warned.
Fittest Man Over 50
Roger Hiatt, partner, Stinson Morrison Hecker
We’ve seen Roger Hiatt here before, but not like this: The lawyer for Stinson Morrison Hecker earned a share of Fittest Man Over 50 in 2010, and finished second by a single point last year. This year, Hiatt came in just two points shy of perfection to earn the title outright. “I have made some efforts to improve my score each year, but I compete only against myself,” he says.
Can’t argue with the results: His final health score of 148 was the second-highest in the field this year. Hiatt got there through a mix of cardio and weight-bearing exercise, taking Ultimate Fit classes at the Y—classes, he says, that “are quite like Cross Fit, are tough, but actually fun.” And he added a dollop of yoga this year to improve flexibility.
It’s good preparation for the long haul. “Life spans of early to mid-90s are common in my family, on both sides, so I may live a relatively long life,” Hiatt said. But he places a higher value on quality than on quantity, which is why he says it’s important “to maximize a person’s quality of life and overall health in the present.” His internal drive was a big part of Hiatt’s success, but he offered a hat-tip to his firm’s leadership, as well: The work environment is positive, he said, and the firm encourages employee wellness, “so Stinson’s commitment to this competition is consistent with its institutional priorities.” His next fitness challenge? “I am hoping to go to Italy this summer and do some biking day trips.”
Fittest Woman Under 50
(tie) Stacey Gates, Gates Hospitalists; and Jessica Lea, pres., Tria Health
“The generation I grew up in didn’t give 12th-place medals,” says Stacey Gates, of the Metro Med team. “There are winners and there are losers. We can’t shield ourselves from failures.” One of the competitors in this year’s Challenge to have taken part in all four, Gates wasn’t about to abide failure this year, earning her second first-place finish. This one, for Fittest Woman Under 50, bookends the one she earned in a tie for Most Improved Woman in 2009. And she has a pair of second-place finishes in the fittest category, to boot.
She got there this year by overcoming several obstacles—she’s the mother of six, for starters, and both general counsel and office manager for her husband Lancer’s medical practice. So time is a foe.
Jessica Lea, by coincidence, also brought a health-care provider perspective to this year’s Challenge. The president of Tria Health in Overland Park, “I want to continue to send the message internally to our employees and externally to our community and client partners that Tria Health is committed to ensuring the promotion of health and wellness,” she said.
Like Gates, she’s a married executive with children, and pursuing an MBA, so time is a factor. To make best use of it, she says, she runs when she can, up to five days a week, but when she can’t, she’ll incorporate micro-burst of fitness into her day, such as taking the stairs at work: “Nothing like seeing someone in 4-inch heels doing the stairs!” she says—parking farther away, or biking with her two children.
“I also lift with a trainer one day a week as well to ensure that I am combining strength training,” Lea says. “My week isn’t always perfect or the same, but it is a commitment to changing your lifestyle to include healthy habits.”
Fittest Woman Over 50
Debra Ward, director of rehab services, Truman Medical Center 
How many of us have lived this chapter of Debra Ward’s story? “Years ago, I tried to be a runner, and it just didn’t work out for me,” she says. “It made my knees hurt, so I quit. I started walking, but I could walk for miles and not feel like I had gotten a good workout.”
Then she met an avid cyclist who taught her about bicycles, helped her pick one out—and created a monster: “I have become,” she says, “what some might call addicted to the sport.”
Weather-permitting, Ward rides roughly 100 miles a week and has done annual bike tours in the Rockies for the past five years. “It involves about 500 miles of riding
in the mountains in a week,” she says.
Woof. No wonder she started this year’s Challenge in near peak form. But achieving optimal fitness is one thing; maintaining it is another, especially with fall and winter approaching. By happy coincidence, Ward said, the Challenge coincided
with the change of seasons, “so my bike riding routine shifts to indoor at the gym. I do a little more strengthening in the winter, but tried to make my routine more demanding because of the Challenge” this year.
Focusing on areas that had room for improvement, “I looked for new ways to keep my cardio workouts interesting.”
Swimming had an appeal, but her gym lacked a pool. So she hit the streets again.
“I’ve been running a bit with no ill effects so far, and have signed up for a couple of events—the Warrior Dash and the Color Run,” she said. They will be “FUN events!”
Analysis: On Average, Nothing About These Gains Was Average
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