by Eliza Pisică, Project Manager Hercules Trophy Romania

We were in Belgium two weeks ago in Mechelen for our first Hercules Trophy competition and it was an adventure worth telling!
Together with Adrian and Sabin, I spent 5 full days (21 – 25 June 2017) with the team from Belgium, who have been organizing this competition for over 18 years, both in Mechelen and Antwerp.
From the logistical set-up to the crew briefing, from the Herculean dance to the 10 rehearsals in a unique mix, from backstage to the stage next to the Tomorrowland DJs, from participant to observer, our delegated team saw all facets of an experienced Hercules Trophy and tells about them.
It all started with the invitation of the Hercules Trophy founders, Yves and Inge, to taste the experience of the coolest (almost) sports competition, straight to the source.
The preparations didn’t last too long, because we were going to be participants in one of the 3 days of competition and we wanted to keep it as authentic as possible and as close to the experience that the Romanians will have at the first edition from us.
We basically did nothing to prepare, we didn’t train at all, we didn’t know in advance what all the tests were or their rules, we didn’t make a strategy, we didn’t even know our other teammates or the captain team!
But I was there, I played well and… We can’t wait for the first edition in Romania, in the spring of 2018! It will be memorable!

Day I – June 21, 2017 & Day II – June 22, 2017

Location tour and meetings with the organizing team

3:45 a.m., Bucharest

Um, I was already really excited about leaving, so I didn’t realize that maybe I’m exaggerating a bit by going to the airport 2 and a half hours early, so I didn’t hesitate for a second to tell him I also call my colleagues, Adi and Sabin, with whom I was going to spend the next 5 days in Belgium. You guessed it, they weren’t as excited about me calling them at that hour.

12:00 Mechelen, Belgium

Our first days in Belgium were rather technical. I attended several meetings of the members of the organizing team, on various situations that needed to be resolved a day or two before the start of the events.

But first we enjoyed a full tour of the location (De Nekker Public Park), where Sanna, the Project Manager of this edition of the Hercules Trophy, gave us a brief overview of where it will be all logistics elements placed (“What do you mean? Less than 2 days before a 3-day event with over 3000 participants, the logistics are still not in place?!< /em>”).

After a short time we already felt part of the organizing team and we wanted to get more involved. If they hadn’t sent us for a walk, because it was a very beautiful day (which they considered hot at 27-28 degrees C!) and it was worth exploring Mechelen and its surroundings a bit, maybe even the lake near the cabins where we were stay!

We quickly familiarized ourselves with the Hercules Trophy Village, the core where all the unexpectedly cool things of the next few days would happen:

• the crew briefing session, all the people who were going to take care of 10 fun trials, over 350 teams from countless companies, over 3000 participants full of absolutely infectious energy! Of course, we would realize this only after 3 days.
• Hercules Dance (“Um, I guess this is a kind of warm-up, like you do in all sports competitions, right? What rehearsal do you have for something like that, just following the instructor, right? “).
• General rehearsals.

What remained in our minds very clearly after all these meetings were some well-pointed details by Yves, the founder of Hercules Trophy.

• This competition is about people, about team, about being fair, and most of all, it’s about fun!
• timing is crucial (for each team, 15 minutes for a test, 15 minutes for a break), and the participants must also understand this, so that we are sure that we do not make a long boring event.
• Hercules is not about winning at all costs, risking your integrity or the integrity of anyone around you, it’s about teamwork and, above all, fun.

Cool, right?

Day III – June 23, 2017

THE FIRST ROMANIANS WHO PARTICIPATED IN A TEAM AT THE HERCULES TROPHY

Time 6:30

Well, who could sleep more?!

I tried not to wake the boys too early and suddenly, exactly 3 hours before the competition, I felt like doing some warm-up exercises! (“What a good child!”)

I started counting so many bends, so many squats, trunk twists, up, down, left, right… what can I say, in 10 minutes I thought I felt super energized. Music was already playing from the recording point…

Time 7:30

I quickly put on the equipment provided and (very proud!) the super Herculean hoodie received the day before as a gift and headed to the Registration Area.

(“WOW! Is this how everyone woke up? Where did they get this energy? And how come waves of people are already coming 2 hours before the competition?”)

Carlitos, the MC, was a very jovial guy, all smiles and joy, he was in the middle of the participants, guiding them, encouraging them, training them to dance with him and Kelly, the instructor from Hercules Dance! The contestants laughed heartily, took selfie after selfie and danced while waiting for their turn at the taping, and then were again photographed by official photographers passing through an arcade of cheerful crew members’ hands.

(“Eliza, but the competition only starts in 2 hours… why don’t we take advantage of all this beautiful energy and charge our batteries?! Oh, but wait, which team are we competing in, who are our colleagues? “)

Time 9:00

“Guuuuuys, we’re starting the Find our team operation!”

And I came across the 5 hungry ladies in our team, 4 of whom are actually ladies with good life experience. From 3 words we all realized that we are on our first participation, that we don’t have any team strategy, because we don’t know how it works, and then we decided on the spot that we are going to have a lot of fun!

Our captain, Barbara, received a full kit for our team, which contained:

• exact schedule of our team for the day and location map
• participant wristbands
• food and drink vouchers for each team member and the newsletter with the latest Hercules Trophy news around the world.

Oh, wait… we found ourselves there too

We tried to answer Brain Labour first, this 5-question test of insight and logic, timed.

Then we quickly evaluated the map to see where the first trials we were going to attend were located.

And we didn’t even realize when it was exactly time to go to the front of the stage to warm up with Kelly – hey, here were some of the Herculean dance steps and I felt like I’d already bitten the cheese, because I knew them < em>(“Yesterday we learned and repeated so many steps and now we only do 2 – 3?!”)!

At how excited everyone was, at how much jostling and gaiety, I wondered if anyone was still looking at the clock and if we would be able to respect our team timing.

But I hadn’t even finished the thought, when Carlitos, the MC announced the start of the official Opening Ceremony of the competition, 2 lighted torches were brought onto the stage, and then, in just a few seconds, the stage was engulfed by the cheering of the team captains with flags and banners waving in their hands, singing and whistling with joy!

Time 10:00

Swiss time, at 10:00 a.m. all the captains on the stage called out their teams and started the tests, each according to his schedule.

We started with Foot Darts, Cross Country, SUP and ElliptiGo. 4 members participate in each test – we decided on the spot, before each test.

They are brilliant! When you enter the race with the thought that you want to win, all the tests seem difficult, difficult to tackle by some members who are fuller or perhaps less athletic, you stress to get the fastest time, you push the limits, you take risks.

But I remembered what Yves had said from the first day, at the briefing… “don’t take any risks” and now I understood. I gave my best with the preparation from that moment, with my teammates whom I barely knew and who understood the same thing, with the joy of the extraordinary experience I was living right then! > It wasn’t about the prizes, but about discovering new people, a culture of competition quite different from ours, but very healthy, experiencing tests I’ve never met before , with the taste of a party all day long!

12:00

We finished the first 4 tests quite easily, so we didn’t really get tired, but we still stopped for a snack break with apples and muffins, specialty coffee (I overdid it a bit with the joke, but I asked the barista to let me make my own latte art and I impressed him – not by creativity, but by daring, I think).

Some of our colleagues took advantage of the short break for a 10-minute relaxation program, with some special glasses with music and little lights… um, a bit Star Trek looking, but it seems you really appreciate it.

Meanwhile, Adi took advantage of the break and sent his surveillance drone around, let’s see how the other teams are doing 😛

1:30 p.m.

The 1-hour lunch break also marked the halfway point of the competition. We ate healthy, chicken rolls with lots of fresh vegetables, enough to give us an energy boost for the rest of the day.

3 more samples until the next breath:

• Adrenalator, a treadmill that works in reverse and is inclined at 45 degrees (well, the fact that there were 2 ex-marathon participants in our team was quite important here) ,
• BossaBall, the volleyball game in which extra points are scored for successful shots by jumping from the trampoline and
• Bugxters (the buggies known to everyone, but which I hadn’t tried before).

15:00

And after the second snack, the coolest tests ever followed!

Flip It gave us all a good workout – we couldn’t have rolled the inflatable cube without Sabin’s strategy of counting our steps and Herculeanly shouting “Go Team! Go Team!”. I had the feeling that I was going to get out of that cube with all the strength I was investing in every shout!

And Car Pulling was not inferior either, an event which, however, proved to be much more accessible than we imagined! At this test, we were most pleased by the fact that we were able to pull the car behind us 2 times – (I had the feeling that from the first lap I understood exactly what the right tactic was for urning!

Only the Pole Dance took us all by surprise, but 4 of our colleagues proved to us that the technique and attention to detail explained by the instructors are far from complicated, regardless of age or physical training.

Time 17:30

We couldn’t believe that at 17:30 we had finished all the tests and that we didn’t feel tired!

As we entered back into Hercules Village, the fun seemed to be waiting for us: the photobooth with the pictures in place, the relaxation massage area was activated, the first dishes were served alcoholic beverages (the competition was over by now!), the MC was already training us to come to the stage, where the music was already playing!

Time 19:30

After enjoying a sensationalnational aperitif with mango and passion fruit, lemon or berries (a typically Belgian alcoholic drink that brings a lot of sweet liqueur fruits) and then a tasty BBQ, with a perfectly prepared beef and lots of fresh salads, Kelly took the stage again and finally trained the participants with the rest of the dances I had learned the day before and we didn’t know what we were going to do with them. (“AHA!”)

The Premiere Ceremony lasted exactly half an hour, during which time all categories of winners were announced : 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places, Coolest Team Outfit, Fairest Team, Coolest Crew Member, Smartest Team.

What we found very cool about this chapter was the lack of material financial prizes – all the winners on the podium were given cups, and the other teams were given bottles of champagne. Another proof that the Hercules Trophy is an experience different from other sports competitions, that it emphasizes fun and teamwork and that it is not motivated by tangible gains, but by the desire for fun in a different way< /strong>, of affiliation or association with the coolest corporate sports competition on the planet!

We trained to party until midnight and enjoyed the whole experience like teenagers at prom , but with an extra bonus – 2 DJs from Tomorrowland, already old states at Hercules Trophy: Makasi and Nexuz!

Herculeans, that’s how we felt that day!

Day IV – June 24, 2017 & DAY V – JUNE 25, 2017

Wow moments

I confess that I couldn’t stay away, sleep more on the days when I didn’t participate in the competition… we were so filled with great energy last morning that we couldn’t wait for the next days to repeat the experience!

And we will tell you what we really liked:

• Morning energy gave us a magical vibe in each of the 3 days of competition!
• The competition started at 10:00, sharp and went on in excellent harmony, because everyone involved understood that it was better to have a great time than to waste more time than necessary for tests!
• There was no time lag, on any of the days, and the team members had the most input on this
• The events at the Ladies Games, the competition derived from the Hercules Trophy and adapted for ladies, are designed and customized especially for women – this is how we were able to enjoy a Cross Country with obstacles in the form of lipsticks or diamond rings, a test from Stihl hosted by 3 very handsome and charming gentlemen or a mock photo session in a professional studio!
• Most participants were not participating for the first time! We curiously talked to people who were on their 8th or 5th or 3rd because we wanted to see what keeps them coming back each time. And I found out that it is exactly about the Herculean spirit:
  • the energy of the competition is memorable and there is no other place to relive it the same,
  • they come with their colleagues and get to know them in ways they don’t have the opportunity to do anymore,
  • even though it’s a contest, the fact that they’re not competing for prizes makes it a cool experience to the fullest
  • the events/mix of events are not repeated, no year is the same, although Cross Country has been a challenge every year for over 15 years
  • have all the fun in one place, just like at a festival; practically, in addition to the fact that you discover your colleagues in a different way and that you have fun with them at the Herculean tests, you also have time to spend with your friends or family, who encourage you from the sidelines.

And if you were to ask us, individually, how it was, we would answer:

Yes, it was a wow experience for the Romanian team!

Yes, it’s different when you’re there, in the middle of things and you taste firsthand everything that means a Hercules Trophy!

Yes, it’s actually not hard to take part in the tests even without any physical training beforehand!

Yes, we madea lot of new friends, very cool people, who would like to come to our first edition in Romania!

Yes, the energy that is created among hundreds of participants from the first hour is unique and contagious!

Herculean, that’s how I feel today!