As many of you might know I’m everything but a
big fan or talent of running. Nevertheless I liked the idea, for the team
spirit among colleagues and for being as a company altogether part of this huge
event.
Unfortunately not everyone thought like me and
Franck and so it turned out to be quite a challenge to find runners for each of
the 15 stretches.
However, kind of “obliging” the trainees to
show some commitment as well, we eventually ended up with this
line-up:
So, on Saturday 12/05 we all meet up in our office getting ready for the "big" run :-)
At around 15:30, after getting ready, everyone left the office to proceed on one's own responsibility to her/his starting point. Since our boss Anette, Brigitta, Justine and I had our starting points close to each other we left together towards Bislett Stadion.
Birgitta's start was set at 16:55 and so we still had plenty of time which we used for having a coffee in a nearby bar.
I didn't stay long, though, because I preferred making myself on the way to my starting point and to do some warm up exercises.
The first change of this relay took place at Louisesgate, close to the park of St. Hanshaugen. Here I was taking over the relay from Birgitta.
After about 7 minutes after the Birgitta's start, I saw her running down the street towards our changing point. I took over to start my run of 1.100 metres:
First downhill towards Bislett Stadion...
...and then uphill Pilestredet towards Wolffs Gate.
After exactly 5:53 minutes, I handed the relay over to Justine who run the third leg of 600m. Though I wasn't really prepared for running uphill I was happy with my run :-)
I waited for Justine at our exchange point to come back after her 600m so we could walk over to the second last point of change as Justine was going to take over the run of a colleague that became ill at last minute.
When we had arrived at the second last point of change there was a huuuuuuuuuuuge crowd of runners waiting for their turn. It was just super crowded...
...and Justine was waiting for Lisa to come and hand over the relay.
However, something in our team went wrong...
Birgitta, I, Justine and the fourth runner Ingve, ran as foreseen, but then the first problem occured: runner nr. 5 hadn't shown up. It took Ingve sometime to find out that noone was there waiting for him to hand over the relay... So after just having overcome 1.700m he just continued running, thus taking over also the part of the colleague that never appeared for the exchange.
In Vindern Ingve handed over to the sixth runner, Lise, who successfully ran her 1.300m. However, also Lise couldn't rely on her fellow runner - also runner number 7 wasn't in place to take over the relay from Lise! When she realised that noone was waiting for her, she called Franck asking where everyone was, if something had happened and Franck could only give her the news that two colleagues were just stuck on the tram!!! So after a break, Lise continued running another 1.790m - all uphill!!!
All this extra effort by our two colleagues - plus the fact that we are all not big runners - caused a huuuuuuuuuuuge delay.
So while I was waiting together with Justine for Lisa to come, the big crowd of athlets diminished step by step until only Justine and 3 other runners were still waiting for their team-members to come. In the meantime some policemen passed asking astonished and amused "don't tell me you still have to run!?!" and all fences were taken away. Even the streets had been opened again for the regular traffic...despite those 4 eager runners still not having given up hope.
So finally at one point at the end of the street we saw Lisa arrive - all alone - and I had plenty of space to take a picture of the exchange of the relay.
So Justine started another run, back towards Bislet Stadion where she handed over to our boss Anette to run the last part into the stadium.
Of course not very proud of our result most of us still gathered for a drink in town.
The participants of Terra Nova:
Let's go, Haman Racing Team!!!
(f.l.t.r.: Séverine, Lilian, Lisa, Justine, Anette, Floor, Birgitta, Julie, Valentina, Chloé, Lise, Stéphanie - in the front: Franck and Ingve, the male support of the team)
Here, at the start, Birgitta, as our first leg runner, also picked up the relay that would measure all our times.
I didn't stay long, though, because I preferred making myself on the way to my starting point and to do some warm up exercises.
I waited for Justine at our exchange point to come back after her 600m so we could walk over to the second last point of change as Justine was going to take over the run of a colleague that became ill at last minute.
Birgitta, I, Justine and the fourth runner Ingve, ran as foreseen, but then the first problem occured: runner nr. 5 hadn't shown up. It took Ingve sometime to find out that noone was there waiting for him to hand over the relay... So after just having overcome 1.700m he just continued running, thus taking over also the part of the colleague that never appeared for the exchange.
In Vindern Ingve handed over to the sixth runner, Lise, who successfully ran her 1.300m. However, also Lise couldn't rely on her fellow runner - also runner number 7 wasn't in place to take over the relay from Lise! When she realised that noone was waiting for her, she called Franck asking where everyone was, if something had happened and Franck could only give her the news that two colleagues were just stuck on the tram!!! So after a break, Lise continued running another 1.790m - all uphill!!!
All this extra effort by our two colleagues - plus the fact that we are all not big runners - caused a huuuuuuuuuuuge delay.
So while I was waiting together with Justine for Lisa to come, the big crowd of athlets diminished step by step until only Justine and 3 other runners were still waiting for their team-members to come. In the meantime some policemen passed asking astonished and amused "don't tell me you still have to run!?!" and all fences were taken away. Even the streets had been opened again for the regular traffic...despite those 4 eager runners still not having given up hope.
So finally at one point at the end of the street we saw Lisa arrive - all alone - and I had plenty of space to take a picture of the exchange of the relay.
Of course not very proud of our result most of us still gathered for a drink in town.
In the evening our results are online:
For over half of the group no times had been registered anymore as they had been so late at their stretches that the time registrating machines had already been taken away...
I can just say WHAT A SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One thing is to do your job even if slow, but it's a totally different thing to let everyone down by not doing your duty by not showing up. That is irresponsible! The two people had left the office too late and got stuck in the tram. Com'on, that's a shame. That's your responsibility to get to your position on time. And it is not difficult to guess that public transport will be diverted/full because of the run!
"This is team work and if one of us fails, the whole project goes to hell" said Franck. Some of us failed, BUT the project did NOT go to hell, because of the two colleagues from our accounting department, Lise and Ingve, who saved the Haman Racing Team! Thanks for their effort :-)
Well, I'd say we can only do better next year! Worse than nearly the last place we can't get!
So, let's quickly forget about this embarassing run!
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