The biggest college rivalry in the West is arguably Brigham Young University vs. University of Utah. On Saturday, August 27, 2011, fans of the competing colleges set out to show which is better by running in Utah’s first-ever Rivalry Relay race. The race course went all the way from Salt Lake City to Provo, a distance of 64 miles! Which school emerged victorious?
Neither, actually. Fishbowl was the winner!
That’s right, an inventory software company managed to beat 80 other teams, many of which had professional athletes who run marathons every year. How did this major upset happen? We had three big advantages that helped us win:
1. Three teams. We had so many Fishbowl employees sign up to run in the Relay Race, we nearly had to have four teams. Despite a few last-minute injuries, we got 18 runners to run in the race and we split them into three teams of six. The teams were called Fast Fishbowlers, Phat Fishbowlers, and I Can See My Toes Again.
So we had three Fishbowl employees running at the same time during almost the whole race. That meant that even when another team would pass one of our runners, they would be shocked when they encountered other runners wearing orange still ahead of them. How frustrating that must have been!
2. Great training. Jameson King, one of Fishbowl’s support account managers, did an amazing job getting everyone ready for this grueling run. He came up with a training schedule to increase our endurance and then he worked with us individually to help us get the most out of our workouts.
Jameson is the driving force behind Fishbowl’s focus on fitness. It’s amazing how he’s changing lives. Plus, he was probably one of the fastest runners in the race. He charged up a three-mile mountain road like it was nothing. That takes some amazing training.
3. Fun! I didn’t go into this race expecting to place anywhere close to first. I’m not really driven by a desire to show I’m better than other people, but simply to do my best. So in my running I focused on excelling rather than beating anyone else. I ran like I always do, and it turned out that that’s pretty fast. I was getting close to seven-minute miles in my first two legs, despite all the hills! It was a rewarding experience to run in this race. Several of my coworkers lost weight and started enjoying better health as they rose to this challenge. I plan to keep running long distances because I think it’s actually fun.
I talked all about how running a relay race relates to running a business in an earlier blog post, so I just thought I’d share this fun little follow-up. If we could perform this well with just two months of training, imagine what we’ll achieve next year!
Neither, actually. Fishbowl was the winner!
That’s right, an inventory software company managed to beat 80 other teams, many of which had professional athletes who run marathons every year. How did this major upset happen? We had three big advantages that helped us win:
1. Three teams. We had so many Fishbowl employees sign up to run in the Relay Race, we nearly had to have four teams. Despite a few last-minute injuries, we got 18 runners to run in the race and we split them into three teams of six. The teams were called Fast Fishbowlers, Phat Fishbowlers, and I Can See My Toes Again.
So we had three Fishbowl employees running at the same time during almost the whole race. That meant that even when another team would pass one of our runners, they would be shocked when they encountered other runners wearing orange still ahead of them. How frustrating that must have been!
2. Great training. Jameson King, one of Fishbowl’s support account managers, did an amazing job getting everyone ready for this grueling run. He came up with a training schedule to increase our endurance and then he worked with us individually to help us get the most out of our workouts.
Jameson is the driving force behind Fishbowl’s focus on fitness. It’s amazing how he’s changing lives. Plus, he was probably one of the fastest runners in the race. He charged up a three-mile mountain road like it was nothing. That takes some amazing training.
3. Fun! I didn’t go into this race expecting to place anywhere close to first. I’m not really driven by a desire to show I’m better than other people, but simply to do my best. So in my running I focused on excelling rather than beating anyone else. I ran like I always do, and it turned out that that’s pretty fast. I was getting close to seven-minute miles in my first two legs, despite all the hills! It was a rewarding experience to run in this race. Several of my coworkers lost weight and started enjoying better health as they rose to this challenge. I plan to keep running long distances because I think it’s actually fun.
I talked all about how running a relay race relates to running a business in an earlier blog post, so I just thought I’d share this fun little follow-up. If we could perform this well with just two months of training, imagine what we’ll achieve next year!