More than 500 people are closing in on the biggest fitness challenge in the area: Get Fit/Be Fit.

The community fitness program is about to roll out the third and final mini challenge for participants this week, and organizers at the YMCA in Austin couldn’t be happier with the results.

“We have a lot of fun,” said Jaime Annis, marketing coordinator for the Y. “We want to make fitness fun for people.”

Annis and other organizers threw in a few extras this year to get people pumped up about Get Fit/Be Fit, which has been in the Austin area since 2006. Participants could sign up for a fitness class sampler at the Y, where they would go through about 10 minutes of several Y classes to find out what sort of exercises and motions are taught. In addition, Get Fit/Be Fit participants got to measure their fitness levels before the competition began during a Bonus Fitness Day, where they tried to complete as many repetitions of a simple exercise as possible in one minute.

Annis said Get Fit/Be Fit teams will go through another fitness day at the end of the competition to measure their progress.

“We did change up some of the activities this year to get people motivated,” she said.

Those activities include a 45-mile cardio component for Get Fitters and a 90-mile cardio component for Be Fitters, which is the third mini-challenge teams must complete starting Thursday.

Along the way, participants can also complete weekly activity cards in order to get credit for mini-challenge and overall prizes as well, just like previous years.

What’s more, participants have enjoyed the increase in activities, according to Y staff.

“From our standpoint, it looks very good,” said Tedd Maxfield, executive director of the Y.

Get Fit/Be Fit will end April 11, and Annis said the winners will be announced soon after. Yet Y organizers are already looking at next year.

“It’s a pretty visible program within the community,” Annis said.