The healthiest competition – the tenth birthday of Hicron Sport Lovers
In general, at Hicron we focus on teamwork, but there is one area where we positively amp ourselves up, pushing our limits and striving to be absolutely better than others... And this area is the sports competitions that take place within the company. January is a great opportunity to sum them up. Firstly, because the annual statistics are ready, and secondly... because we have been gathering them for the past ten years!
This year, even more than before, we became aware of the importance of being able to get out of the house. The lockdown has hit us hard. Thankfully, running and biking were allowed for most of the year, and we could take advantage of these activities to get away.
People engage in sports because they need to clear their heads and free themselves from intrusive thoughts and because they feel the need to compete against others or challenge themselves. And whoever has tried it once will continue to use sports to blow off steam. At least that is how it has worked with me...
Barbara Zielińska
Marketing and PR Manager at Hicron, the winner of this year’s women’s running competition
Barbara points out that Hicron Sport Lovers is not only a year‑round event but also a community of sports enthusiasts who mobilize and encourage each other and often form teams to participate jointly in various sports competitions:
We compete for Decathlon gift cards, but for us this prize is rather symbolic. Hicron has offered us favorable conditions for joint trainings, and we use them to develop and share our passion!
The Hicron Sport Lovers campaign involves two competitions: Running and Cycling. Each month the winner receives a Decathlon gift card for 200 zlotys. At the end of the year, three women and three men with the longest running and cycling distances also receive gift cards for 1000, 300, and 200 zlotys, respectively.
What motivates us?
Last year we burned 2,856,710 calories while competing. That is an equivalent of almost nine and a half thousand slices of cheesecake – a great incentive to get sporty for those of us with a sweet tooth.
But there is more. For many of us, sport is a lifestyle. Working in the IT industry means spending a lot of time in front of the computer screen, but that does not mean that we have forgotten how nice it is to feel good in our bodies. In fact it makes us even more eager to take the opportunity to move around a bit.
Sure! Sometimes we all struggle with our inner couch potato. That makes me even more proud that I have managed to outpace my colleagues and keep my lead, because in the middle of the year they were really close on my heels, jokes Barbara, who, just like Anna Adamczyk, Marketing Specialist at Hicron and the winner of this year’s cycling competition, combines several of her favorite disciplines while preparing for triathlons.
They are both planning to use the prizes to fulfill their passions: Barbara decided to buy a wetsuit for swimming, while Anna will spend her gift card on a new bike:
I am glad that I can take part in the company sports competition while training for the triathlon. It is a great additional motivation for systematic preparations.
But not everyone trains with competitions in mind. Piotr Sklarczuk, SAP Senior Consultant at Hicron and the winner of the running category, admits that he has not participated in any road running race for over two years: “Now I do it mainly to get out of the house.” When asked if the running competition motivates him, he answered very cautiously: “Officially no.” But after a short while he added that there were months that saw a fierce competition between a small group of people.
This does help with getting yourself together and going outside. Even if it’s raining!
Goodbye Endomondo. Long live Strava!
We are closing the decade of our Hicron sports competitions with a forced change of application. Endomondo – which accompanied us until now – no longer exists, so we are now testing new solutions. Will Strava stay with us for an equally long time? Time will show! The first competition with the new application has already started. Will we beat last year’s results? To do it we have 49,664 km to ride and 12,019 km to run.
Ready, set, go!
