Emily Flora | SWoCo

Radford University senior Lee Bradshaw and Virginia Tech junior Wade Hammes are co-founders of the fitness Web site FITnoke.com.

While many college students are just trying to get by and figure out their future, two Cave Spring graduates, now in college, are doing twice that.

Virginia Tech junior Wade Hammes and Radford University senior Lee Bradshaw have already started a successful business in something they love -- fitness.

FITnoke can be found at www.FITnoke.com and features a calendar of regional events, fitness articles, links to sites, forums to discuss just about anything to do with fitness, product reviews, gym reviews and FITmatch, which allows athletes to find others to train with and even a training log. The site is a place for athletes in the area to network.

"We wanted to aim ourselves at a more general range of people," said Hammes, a business management major. "Our main goal is to become an interactive community."

Both are athletes in a range of sports including football, wrestling, soccer and running, and take pride in their fitness. With FITnoke they've been able to combine their love of fitness and their career paths in business.

FITnoke.com was launched on June 15, but it took Hammes and Bradshaw only a day to come up with the idea.

"I stayed up for four days straight," Hammes said.

"We are right at five months now," said Bradshaw, a marketing major. "We've gone from 10,000 hits a month to 425,000 hits the month of September to a million hits."

"Lee and I didn't know much about Web design so I had to learn," Hammes said. "We studied stuff and then started building the Web site. I've learned so much about Web design, and I made all the graphics."

"We went from zero to 60, just like that," Bradshaw said.

FITnoke is free, and anyone can become a member to keep track of training on Your Training Log, which was built for FITnoke by a man in Iceland. The log helps endurance athletes calculate pace and other things. The site also includes articles about running, cycling, triathlons, leisure, gym, swim, nutrition and sports psychology, relaxed fitness and exercise. Articles are updated daily.

Despite all the learning they've had to do to conduct a successful Web site, they've also had to keep up with their school work.

"It's definitely been a lot of work with school, work, jobs and meeting the press," Hammes said.

"And it's overcoming the age difference, because we are so young," Bradshaw said. "Now when I tell them our hits are over a million, they listen."

Hammes and Bradshaw are still soaking it all in.

"The month of September really opened my eyes as to where this could go," Wade said. "I want to see this keep growing and see if becomes a staple. We want to stay true to our roots."

"We want to stay FITnoke," Bradshaw said.

They've also had relentless support from their families. Bradshaw said his parents use the site a lot. "They are into it and proud of me. It's right up their alley," he said. "When we wanted to start this business we had no money so I asked my mom for help. She asked me to write up a contract. I'd like to be able to give my mom like $116,000 as payback if this continues to be succesful." She had given $116 for the start-up.

"Wade puts in all the hard work and the work until 4 a.m.," Bradshaw said. "We have a good partnership."

"We are a really good team," Hammes said. "Lee and I have always gotten along since Mrs. Williams' class senior year."