Out of the office
From citizen-times.com
Corporate adventure race takes employees out of the workplace and into the mountains
by Lindsay Nash
It’s time for corporate America to get out of the cubicle.
This is no free lunch we’re talking about. This is competition, pure and simple.
And what better to add to the resume than team-building skills, honed from competing in the country’s first U.S. Challenge, a corporate adventure race presented by Fortune Magazine that promises to test the mind, body, strength, stamina and team spirit.
The event, sponsored by London-based Challenger World, will take place Friday and Saturday throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains, with more than 120 employees broken down into teams of four from America’s leading companies, including three teams from Asheville.
“Businesses are changing, there’s no face-to-face contact,” said Nick Garcia of Challenger World. “We take them away from the office for a few days and throw them into a variety of challenges. They have to be mentally fit. They will be thinking under pressure and making decisions and putting the right person up for the job. This is emulated in the workplace. It’s fantastic for team building.”
As clandestine as a CEO’s board meeting, the events of the adventure race are top secret until moments before the events occur, adding to the aura of the corporate challenge.
“Part of the fun of it is the unknown,” said Jill Goldie, a race participant with Asheville’s Volvo Construction Equipment of North America.
Throughout the event, participants will be faced with a series of challenges set within the Blue Ridge Mountains, which race coordinators say “may include” kayaking, rappelling, mountain biking and code breaking.
The four employees plus an alternate from Volvo feel closer as co-workers just from the training involved in preparation for the race, Goldie said.
“We have been riding and running together,” she said. “We’ve been doing some team building and puzzles and figuring out clues. We’re really getting to know each other and figuring out how we each think and work together. We are strides ahead of where we were months ago.”
Asheville’s Keller-Williams team member Brad Pufferhad done some adventure racing in the past, and when he saw the advertisement for the U.S. Challenge in a Delta Sky magazine on a flight to Austin, Texas, he knew he had to sign up.
“I saw that it was going to happen in Asheville and just had to do it,” he said.
He returned from his trip and talked some co-workers into joining his team with a sponsorship from his employer, Keller-Williams Professionals.
“These are people I work with every day,” Puffer said. “We are a real estate office, so we’re technically a bunch of independent contractors. This experience helps build morale and a sense of belonging with the company.”
Since April, the team of four, plus one alternate, has met each Saturday at Bent Creek to mountain bike and run, in preparation of the adventure race.
“We’re as ready as we’re going to be,” he said.
The teams are nervous, not sure of what the race might hold. Some teams are figuring it might take more brains; some figure it’s going to take more brawn.
Kelly Miller, vice president of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, knows his team is pretty fit. Along with runner and president of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce Richard Lutovsky, the team has the man known for running in Asheville - Norm Blair, who once ran a marathon (that’s 26.2 miles) in 2 hours and 19 minutes and now owns Jus’ Running. Also on the team is Adam Pinkston, who holds the record for the best time in the Shut-in Ridge Trail Run, at nearly 18 miles and extremely hilly, one of the most grueling races in the Southeast.
“We’re all pretty fit, but when it comes to four guys reading a compass, tromping through the woods, we could be the worst team in the field,” Miller said, with a nervous laugh.
The leading teams that come out of this weekend’s race will be entered into the World Team Challenge, where they will represent the United States against the cream of corporate Europe.
Also competing this weekend is a celebrity team made up from the winning competitors of hit shows “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.” The team will take on the challenge on behalf of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., in their first race together.
Ethan Zohn, 31, of New York is a former professional soccer player who started his own nonprofit, Grassroot Soccer, which works for AIDS/HIV prevention education in Africa, after he won $1 million on “Survivor: Africa.”
Zohn, who has also competed in “Eco-Challenge,” said his celebrity teammates are all athletic and prepared to go all out.
“I’m very competitive,” Zohn said. “However, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not about us, it’s about raising funds for St. Jude Hospital. To compete on their behalf is an honor.”
Senior executives from leading U.S. companies including Cisco Systems, Accenture and Dell Inc., also will join the celebrities.
The teams have trained, grown closer and scoped out the competition. Now, there’s nothing left but the race.
“Bring it on,” Goldie said.
The Locals:
(Team name) The Spirit of Asheville
Richard Lutovsky, 61, president and CEO of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce; runner
Kelly Miller, 48, executive director and vice president of Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau; runner
Norm Blair, 48, owner of Jus’ Running, Inc. and former 2:19 marathoner
Adam Pinkston, 43, manager at Black Dome Mountain Sports and race director and seven-time winner of the grueling Shut-In Ridge Trail Race.
Keller-Williams Professionals
Brad Puffer, 35, real estate agent; Army ranger, mountain biker
Craig Severance, 36, real estate agent; road biker
Jason Pastucha, 34, real estate agent; mountain biker
Michael Shoffner, 29, real estate agent; adventure racer, former Boy Scout
Volvo Construction Equipment of North America
Jill Goldie, 44, Volvo’s travel department; runner, adventure racer
Tommy Oakman, 40, Volvo’s human resources department; adventure racer
Dan Snedecor, 35, Loader team at Volvo; an on and off-road competitive cyclist
Wade Turlington, 34, Technical support specialist; off-road cyclist
Martin Mattsson, 26, International buyer at Volvo; runner