A wok in the park

A stroll in the park on a Saturday afternoon is the perfect way to get away from the rat race. Everyone's taking it easy, no-one's rushing around in business clothes, swinging THEIR briefcases while shouting frantically into mobile phones...

But anyone who had gone to Pole Mokotow-skie to get away from it all on the afternoon of May 28th was in for a bit of a shock. For the park was the venue for the third Warsaw Rat Race. A total of 36 teams with 148 runners lined up at the start, dressed to the nines in suits and ties, along with a woolly mammoth - the mascot of one of the park's drinking holes - fondly remembered from last year's race.
Thankfully for the participants, the race took place during a break in the hot sunny weather that had dominated the end of May - the pleasant breeze and light spots of rain were most welcome against the faces of the runners as they toiled around the 3.5 km circuit.
But it was not all jackets and ties. Although the race has a 'working clothes only' rule, for the team from the Medical University of Warsaw (just across the road from the park), this meant surgeons' gowns and stethoscopes. And for the Hilton 4 Kitchen team, the order of the day was chef's hats, aprons and woks - among other culinary utensils. In all, the runners included workers from the real estate, construction, banking, hotel, legal, public and health sectors.
The winning men's team was entered by Gazownia, way ahead of the rest of the field with a time of 15:36, followed by Jones Lang LaSalle's paradoxically-named 'No Name' team in 16:31. In third place overall was Hilton F&B in 17:10, which was also the best placed mixed-gender team, pipping CB Richard Ellis' mixed team to the honour by just one second! - whoever said that charity fun runs were never exciting? Coming third in this category was the team from Lizard, with a time of 18:51. Triumphant in the women's race was Pentegy, completing the course in 22:06, with two Jones Lang LaSalle teams - 'Girls from the Agency' (22:49) and 'Can't Make Up My Mind' (26:30) - in second and third. And it was this agency that won the award for entering the most teams - a grand total of six JLL squads took part. The team from 'Eurobuild CEE', featuring your correspondent, ended up with an acceptable mid-table finish, but I'm sure our school reports would have said "Could do better"... Maybe next time.
The most important thing, however, was not the winning, but that over PLN 40,000 was raised for the First Step Programme, which is run by the Sue Ryder Foundation and the Association of Friends of Integration. The money will go towards helping recently disabled and paralysed people take their first steps towards regaining an active life.