AUGUSTA – Being over 50 and a member of the Augusta Fire Department (as a firefighter-paramedic) might be enough of a challenge for some people – but not for Randy Gordon.

Gordon of Wilton wanted to bring the Firefighter’s Challenge – an athletic challenge and fundraising event that brings firefighters from all over the United States and Canada together to compete – to Western Maine.

No one else seemed to care.

So Gordon got to work.

It wasn’t easy. The challenge has never been held in Augusta before, and most members of the department had never competed. They would have to raise $10,000 just to bring the challenge to town – and more, since they wanted to raise money for the community, as well.

“He has been constantly on the phone,” Gordon’s wife, Vickie Gordon, said over his cell phone late Friday night. She, Gordon, their two sons, their entire family and many family friends were still at it – doing last-minute things to get ready for the event.

“He put in a tremendous amount of time and effort,” Battalion Chief Charles Squires said Friday. “For the last seven months he has spent – I don’t know – countless hours lining up sponsors, setting up the venue, getting volunteers to run the events and coordinating with the Firefighter Challenge to bring the contestants here.”

The challenge is a big-deal, nationwide event, Squires said, with regionals all over the country and a final championship in Las Vegas every year. Today’s Combat Challenge is the only one in New England this year. “It’s quite a coup to have it here,” Squires said.

On top of organizing the challenge, Gordon has also been training hard, according to his wife.

“I know, I’m training with him,” she said. “He’s been running my butt ragged. I’ve lost 42 pounds since he started this.”

The course simulates what firefighters have to do in their jobs, Gordon explained. “It brings out the awareness of the physical rigors associated with firefighting,” he said. It was started as a way for scientists to study what firefighters go through in their job.

“It’s hard enough to do it when you’re not competing,” Squires said, “but when you’re competing – it’s just way beyond anything I would want to attempt.”