SUTTON, Mass. - Dozens of people got together on Saturday for an event that organizers call "an adventure race like no other."

The Greenway Challenge begins in Cumberland, R.I. and ends in Whitinsville, with teams of participants working together in a relay that involves biking, running and paddling.

Charlie Thompson, steering committee chairman for the Greenway Challenge, said it’s quite a journey.

“It's basically designed as a team relay race, and there are eight segments in the race,” Thompson said. “Three of them are being done here at Marion’s Camp. A team gets formed, and they recruit somebody that's a paddler, somebody that's good with a street bike, trail run, and so forth.”

The Greenway Challenge has been going strong since 2001, and works to promote the recreational quality of life in the Blackstone River Valley.

This year, organizers are raising money for the Whitin Community Center.

“The Community Center is celebrating 100 years this year,” Thompson said. “And they're in a capital campaign. We just finished a complete makeover of the gymnasium. We’re working on our swimming pool and expanding child care that we run there at the center.”

For new Greenway participants and seasoned veterans of the challenge, the journey is difficult - some teams log more than 50 miles between biking, running and paddling.

It may be exhausting, but it’s exactly what they signed up for.

“Some of our colleagues have done this in the past and we want to be here," Nikki Delude Roy said. "Conservation is kind of our thing. And we want to be here and enjoy it and spend time together."

“We’ve been doing it together for at least 10 years," said Mike Gallagher. "A bunch of guys from Grafton who knew each other from soccer, we put together the team and just have a blast."

UniBank sponsors the annual event, which will help support the development of new programs, purchase of additional equipment and facility renovations at the Whitin Community Center.