From Hood to Coast

Van 1, EthicsPoint EOTR team (from left to right): Bill Piwonka, Brett Arnold, Rodica, Tom McNamara, David Barker, Tom O'Keefe.

I spent my birthday in a fairly unorthodox way this year - I ran the Nike Hood to Coast relay challenge (H2C) with my co-workers at EthicsPoint. I think I learned a lot more than I can put into words right now, but let me see if I can briefly summarize:

1. A little bit of pain never hurt anyone. I realize exactly how silly that sentence sounds to a native English speaker, and yet...there is an amazing bonding experience that stems from having a group of people experience the same hardship together, conquering their limits together. There was a lot of fun in our van, but through it all, it was a great life lesson to go through it all with the team.

2. True leaders inspire people around them to try new things, to test their limits. Bill, our director of marketing, wasn't even training when he was recruited to replace an injured team mate...the day before H2C. Mac, our Sales VP, who wasn't much of a runner before, had been training very hard for this event and actually accomplished sub 10 min miles throughout the relay (without ever walking!). Tom, our EVP, almost reached the speeds of David Barker's, our star athlete from IT, who had been training for his 2nd H2C event this year. Brett, recently promoted in our Sales department, powered through the race with a fever, after being sick the entire week. And the stories go on. We're all passionate about our work every day, often at the expense of our own health, so seeing people pull through their physical limits, stepping up, and shining at this event was incredibly motivating.


Tom giving Mac a fist bump!


Tom and David synchronizing their Garmins (no, not really, but it sure looks that way :) )

3. We have a rockstar CEO. After two days of little to no sleep and some 197 miles, our CEO greeted both our EP running teams at the finish line and nursed us all back to life with an awesome home-cooked meal and a special selection of wine. I think gestures like these is what earns David the respect of everyone in the company. People look up to him both as a person and as a leader because they realize that he is genuine when he says he cares and supports the EP team in these activities. I'll have to start a David Childers fan club :)

My hat's off to all the runners who survived this year's Hood to Coast! I'll definitely be back next year :)