Adventure Team Challenge rocks my world.

Team Alteryx

This past weekend was something that will forever be one of the best experiences of my life.  Even as a spectator to the Adventure TEAM Challenge, I quickly realized (once again) that teamwork continues to be a critical life skill no matter the setting.  As this was the first time team Alteryx ever participated in an event like this, our goal was simply to finish the race in one piece.  At the end of the two day race, we realized that what we had accomplished was so much more.

Not long ago, my employer Alteryx had their annual conference.  As usual, we had quite a few major speakers from large companies all over the globe.  Like most conferences, we also had a keynote speaker that really helps to tie everything together.  This year, we had Erik Weihenmayer.  Erik is an expert climber, motivational speaker, and one of the few people in the world that has climbed the Seven Summits (oh, and he’s blind).

One of the many things that Erik is involved in is an organization called World Team Sports.  WTS is a “nonprofit organization dedicated to creating soul-stirring opportunities for individuals of all abilities through the power of sports.”  In short, they provide amazing opportunities for amazing people, among the opportunities was the Adventure TEAM Challenge.

The Adventure TEAM Challenge 2010 consisted of several different physical challenges ranging from white water rafting to single-track bike racing through the Rocky Mountains. The days were long, the terrain rugged, but our spirits soared.  With all of the extremely talented athletes surrounding us, we seemed to go the extra mile for each other, motivating ourselves to push onward and upward (and downward in some cases).  As one of the fantastic support crew members, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of major accomplishment each time we cheered our team through another checkpoint.  Tired and somewhat broken, our team pushed on.  Difficult terrain was no match for us as we persevered through land, sea, and air.  In the end, even with all of the amazing and inspirational athletes competing against us, we placed third.

There are few times in my life where I can remember being part of a team that has worked as hard as we did and accomplished so much over the course of this race.  Even our newest member Matt mentioned how it was obvious that we worked well together (Matt is a war veteran, is tough as nails, and just a cool guy to hang out with).  One of our other members, Clarissa, was new to the adventure race scene but was the talk of the town by the end of the weekend thanks to her spirit of competition and killer smile.  She found out that in the end, others were inspired by her just as much as she was inspired by them.  Funny how that works sometimes, isn’t it?