…or a fun day off from work!
On Friday I competed in the Corporate Games organised by Active Norfolk, as part of their Fit4Work programme. It was set up in 2009 and offers staff and clients a chance to get active and compete in sporting challenges against teams from other local businesses. My boss at work entered a team from our department and I signed up/was volunteered (!) to participate.
It actually turned out to be a pretty fun, and tiring, day!
The event was held at the Sportspark at UEA in Norwich. There was a wide range of sports and all teams got to take part in all sports, with each team consisting of 5 people plus subs. We rotated round activities during the day, spending 30minutes at each station. The short time allotted meant that most of the activities were pretty intense!
We started with a pitch and putt style golf course…
Followed by Athletics…
1. Throw a foam javelin as far as possible
2. Run as many relay lengths in 5minutes as possible- we had a few missed batons but did pretty well with this!
3. Do as many jumps over a foam wall in 30seconds as possible.
Then Cycling…
This was hard! Each member of the team had to cycle 500m on watt bikes as fast as possible.
Everyone else stood behind and yelled encouragement which was definitely needed!
After cycling we did Archery which was a little more sedate. I’ve never tried it before and was quite excited to give it a go. I didn’t get any pictures as I was too involved! The only archery I’d done previously was on Wii Sports (haha) and I wasn’t sure if I would suck in real life. Turns out when using my right hand I am pretty rubbish! But once I switched and used a left-handed bow I was actually reasonably decent- the trick is being able to close one eye in order to focus on the target.
We had a break at midday for lunch and our team went and sat in the square at UEA- I went to Uni here and it was quite strange being back, it looks just the same!
The team members refuelling!
After lunch we had a go at sitting-down volleyball, meant to illustrate the inclusion of Paralympic sports in the games. I have to say, this was really quite fun and it was actually the only event that our team won! Most of the other teams were very competitive and were taking it rather seriously. It seemed that most were regulars having taken part since the games began in 2009 and knew much more what to expect than we did! Still it was all good fun.
We did kayaking next – a team relay to paddle 1000m as fast as possible on kayak rowing machines. The figure-of-eight arm motion was quite strange to get used to, and tiring on the upper body!
After a short break was curling- held indoors in the squash courts using curling stones with wheels, like little roller skates 🙂
We then had another break followed by team cricket…
…Football skills…
…and touch rugby…
Seeing as we only needed 5 people for each sport and had 7 on the team, we swapped in and out for the different activities. I sat out Football and Rugby- didn’t think I would be very useful at those! Plus by the end of the day I was pretty tired. I think some of the guys were having trouble remembering that it was supposed to be touch rugby too, so I’m kinda glad I didn’t participate in that one!
After the winners ceremony our team headed to the Union pub for a well deserved drink! We sat in the sunshine in the square to recover for a short while…
Aside from obviously having a day out of the office (!), I’m glad I competed in the Corporate Games. I think it’s a really good idea to get the local community involved in sporting activities, and promote the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle. Plus it allows people to try new sports that they may not have come across before, such as archery, kayaking or curling, and then perhaps further investigate it and discover a new hobby or interest. I’d be tempted to look into Archery courses such as this one organised by Active Norfolk- £35 for an 8-week beginner course seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Have you ever been involved in any work team events? Tried any new sports or activities recently?
Beki x
