Go Team America

I had somehow neglected to let my new coworkers know how competitive I am, and that I am quite sporty! My office held its first OlyMPics. This was my chance to meet more of my coworkers. My deskmate Karen asked to be my three-legged race partner and I agreed, but that was the only event I had initially signed up for. We let work a few hours early, jumped in a taxi and headed for the Rugby field. Nothing like getting paid for horsing around and the boss knows about it.

The first event was the boot toss. Grab a boot and throw it as far as you can, in a straight line. I was just standing there, when they handed me the wellie and said Go. I gave it an excellent toss that even impressed most of the guys. The Kiwi was the only one to beat me out. Little did I know, this would be how the rest of the events would go…..

Next up was the three-legged race. This one I did not do so well at, but we did not come in last. Maybe the 10” height difference had something to do with it. I put a some thought into the next events and decided to go for a few more. I picked a girl taller than me to do the wheelbarrow race and knew who could hold my weight. We kicked butt and came in first, to her surprise. The egg and spoon provided to be quite a challenge since there were multiple heats. In the last heat, I was down, but with only 10m to go before the finish, the two in front of me dropped their eggs, and I just cruised right by for another first place. The relay race our team did not bad considering the winning team had two triathlons on it (the Kiwi being one of them). My final event was the sack race. This ended up being quite easy for me since in Ireland, I am considered very tall and had the longer legs for jumping.

Just as we thought things were winding down, NO! Up pulled a van, which had Sumo suits, a blow up jousting platform and a bungee run. Run as fast as you can and try to stick your Velcro ball on the track before the bungee cord pulls you back to the end. That had to be my favourite event of the day! I’m not going to lie to ya, my muscles were still hurting Monday from laughing so much at this little Italian girl who barely fit in the sumo suit and had even better sound effects then I did, and being pulled so hard against the bungee cords. The little Italian girl Tullia was also my competition against the bungee cords.

I got to wrestle my three legged race partner Karen in the Sumo Suits. She is a tricky little one. As we were challenging each other, we were running towards each other, at the last minute she moved out of the way, and as I laid there on my fat belly not able to get up on my own, she body slammed me. And then we both couldn't get up, and every one was laughing so hard at us they could not help us up. We were like little turtles flipped over on our backs.

The night ended at the pub right at the rugby park . The office also paid for the BBQ of burgers, bangers and all the pints we could drink. Our ringleader of the day called out the awards for each event inbetween the karaoke performances. Only the Kiwi had me beat for the most wins in the end. Apparently that is typical of him, in fairness, I gave him a run for his money. I did not part take in the singing, but it was great craic!