You've seen it on T.V., you've read about it in magazines. You know, those crazy events where adults ride oversized tricycles, bounce on rubber balls and do other strange things in the name of "teamwork". Welcome to the world of the Anderson Consulting Corporate Sports Battle.
It started innocently enough. An ad at work looking for participants to compete against other companies in such events as the obstacle course, the rocket rider relay, a 5K, swimming events and a tug-of-war. "How hard can this be?", I asked myself.
Since it has become somewhat of a joke in our society that it "doesn't take a rocket scientist" to figure some things out, we rocket scientists have felt that we needed to prove our capabilities in sporting events to show how well rounded we can be. It has amusing results at times. And so we entered the Southern California district games.
What we hadn't bargined on is that some companies actually take these games a bit seriously. That means they practice...a lot! We did manage a few attempts at organized practices but usually fell short of equipment or participants. So our expectations weren't too high when the games began.
The first few events we a combination of luck and skill. We were doing allright though we could have benefited from more practice. The swimming events allowed us to rack up more points as they represented skill.
So it all comes down to the tug-of-war. On the surface, it seems a simple game of mass - the team with the greatest mass should win. But we had discovered that it actually is a game of strategy and fortunately for our team, we had practiced that strategy.
If you have ever tugged on a rope for a minute, a full 60 seconds, it seems as if time stands still. Your arms are aching, your legs are aching, your back is aching and the seconds refuse to tick by. That's how our first match went. We were victorious but the victory had taken a lot out of us. We were beat. The second tug-of-war was over in a few quick seconds as the team had given its all during the first go around. That was fine, we had secured our victory at the regionals and were now eligible to attend the Nationals in Florida!