Let’s get down to business.
With just under five weeks to go until Team JOE and Team Her do battle in the Virgin Media Night Run in Dublin on May 22, it’s time to put on our game faces.
The time for pleasantries is over.
Indeed, such is the level of competition in the office at the moment that competing Her.ie colleagues are being ignored in the corridors and friendly offers of cups of tea have been banned until early June at the earliest.
Sure, it can get a little awkward at times, but team JOE is in it to win it and the mantra ‘Nice guys finish last’ has been firmly embedded in the minds of all team members as training steps up a notch.
Collectively, team JOE have been gathering together each morning to watch Al Pacino’s ‘Inches’ speech from Any Given Sunday to put us in the right frame of mind, while an unidentified member of the team has been very publicly pumping the guns in view of the entire office.
You do whatever it takes, Gav… Oops!
It’s at an individual level, however, where the real hard work is put in and here’s an update on how the members of Team JOE have been preparing for what might be the peak of their athletic career on May 22.
Gareth Geoghegan
Gareth has been leaning more towards the mental side of preparation so far and he’s been pretty keen to distract Team Her by throwing plenty of smack talk in their direction.
Exhibit A:
The Her team think they’re Lions and think that the JOE team are tunas.
If the Her team were lions and the JOE team were tunas, they say they would swim out into the middle of the ocean and friggin’ eat the JOE team!
OK, first off, a lion… swimming in the ocean?
Lions don’t even like water.
If you placed it near a river, or some sort of fresh water source, that’d make sense.
But you find yourself in the ocean, a 20 foot wave – I’m assuming it’s off the coast of South Africa – coming up against a fully-grown, 800lb tuna with 20 or 30 of his friends?
You lose that battle. You lose that battle nine times out of ten.
And guess what? You wandered into our school of tuna and we now have a taste of blood! We’ve talked to ourselves. We’ve communicated and said, ‘You know what? Lion tastes good. Let’s go get some more lion.'
JOE team for the win.
Gavin Byers
Training? No need for training when you have natural ability spilling everywhere.
I feel confident I can bring the accolades home for #TeamJOE with ease.
If I have time (which I will), I’ll be happy to double back and give piggy backs.
Carl Kinsella
Jogged up the stairs last week in order to fetch myself an Easter egg that I forgot to eat over Easter, then did a warm-down on the way back down the stairs towards the couch.
I am counting on my relentless competitive streak to push me over the finish line and secure the sheer destruction of Team Her.
Brian Sheehan
No training done!
Starting back playing Astro this week so hoping that bit of extra running around will get me over the line. Climbed Mount Fuji last year and nearly died of exhaustion, so I’m extremely apprehensive.
Conor Heneghan
Iconic movie montages have been made out of far less intensive training regimes that I am undertaking at the moment, although the clip below has proving an effective form of motivation of late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFrMLRQIT_k
Clip via zxxz996
In all seriousness, a lengthy injury lay-off means that I am currently making up for the pre-season GAA training I missed out on at the start of this year.
As anyone who has been through that will know, it's not for the faint-hearted.
Rob Timony
Did my induction for the gym last week, decided it was best not to do a big session on the first day, so togged in quite quickly after it.
Had a wedding at the weekend and I got some good solid cardio in on the dance floor.
Spot of astro turf this week, so I'll probably avoid going in goals for the night... only because I'm in training for the race.
The above training regime would stand me in good stead for a marathon, never mind a 10k...
Fancy getting involved?
Anyone, including you, can participate in the Virgin Media Night Run and you can sign up
right here.
The race is open to everyone, so why not register your details and be there on the big night to watch us beat the Her.ie girls to the finish line?
The €30 entry fee includes entry to the race, timing chip with race number, a snazzy race shirt and a jam-packed goodie bag. The deadline for entry is Wednesday 18 May.
It promises to be a very special event!
Best of luck, and we'll see you at the starting line! #VMNightRun
