Creating an environment that promotes health and fitness is a tenet of the Hybrd Fitness brand, founded by Fay-Ann Lyons.
She noted that the brand has built a community around it that has grown considerably over the past ten years. The Chancellor Run is where it all started and has gained recognition as one of the go-to pre-carnival fitness events.
“The hill is very different from the Savannah because the hill, you’re moving, we stop, we do the aerobics periodically, we, we have the instructors doing different stuff. We have a race on the hill, which I participate in, so I’m very hands-on in both, but this one is a different activation because you’re moving behind a truck and you’re doing what you do in the Queen’s Park Savannah.”
As it continues to grow, she said the event has seen collaborations with the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service (MYDNS) and the Ministry of Health for 2025.
“Well, today we partnered with the Ministry for an activation, so they wanted to come on board to do an activation. As you know, they are very much into health and fitness. We had a lot of young people coming out today. It was nice to see more young people coming out. It means the younger the generation that gets into fitness, the better the older generation is going to be because you know we need them to run the country in some years.”
Part of the collaboration with the Ministry of Health includes free HIV testing by the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA).
“Well, I saw that they had HIV testing, which is something that I think should be done more freely. A lot of people, you know, are very taboo about finding out their HIV awareness status, and if we normalise it, normalise getting yourself tested, normalise checking, it’s going to be easier for the population to understand that you can live a long life with the proper treatment and the proper self-care.”
The Hybrd Fitness Chancellor Run at Lady Chancellor Road continues weekly on Saturdays in the lead-up to Carnival.