"Team Hammock" has been a bit of an inside joke at our company for years. When Hammock employees finish 10Ks or half-marathons, or work on Hands On Nashville Day, or participate in the city’s Corporate Spelling Bee (and by participate, I mean dominate other companies with our spelling wizardry), we’ve referred to the participants as doing something on behalf of “Team Hammock.”

Recently, some of the branding whizzes in our shop decided that Team Hammock is worth discussing. Why? Because Team Hammock has tipped from inside joke to unstoppable force. Folks here care passionately about things other than custom media and they want to succeed in those efforts, make a difference, and have fun. What I’ve shared in the previous sentence troubles me (they care about stuff other than work?); however, I’ve read that healthy, balanced, fulfilled people are capable of more and better work.

So, we are chartering Team Hammock to showcase and support our collective passions outside of the work that we do for our clients. The work we do to support our community, the competitions we engage in and the pursuit of happiness (broadly interpreted) will henceforth be beamed out to you in this Team Hammock blog. We promise to hold back the most smug stuff we've got.

Billed as the “Wildest Race in Nashville,” Saturday’s run helps raise funds for our incredible zoo to feed its 1,500 animals. As a fan of zoos, I can attest to what a blessing this zoo is for our city. I think when I moved here 13 years ago, the Nashville Zoo consisted of one scurrvied llama and a bear chained to a block of concrete. Since that time, serious money and love has been poured into this gem of a zoo. Best of all, we only rarely have animals escape.

Every team needs motivation, and, with aging knees and sore feet, motivating others is about all I can manage much of the time. So, to give our runners something to contemplate, I offer this photo from the US Marine Corps, whose recruits have to successfully endure and complete "The Crucible" in order to become Marines. "The Crucible" now comes near the end of the recruits' 12 weeks of boot camp (it used to be week 8). It is a 54-hour field training event that evaluates a recruit’s mental, moral, and physical development in order to validate the transformation into a Marine. In other words, it pushes them to the limits of their endurance.
Ok, Team Hammock, get moving!

"This afternoon, I completed the Zoo Run Run 5K (3.1 mi) in 30:14 minutes, a 9:47 min. pace of which I’m pleased. My weekly long run has been 4 mi. I’m aiming for five miles this week to keep building toward the half-marathon distance of 13.1 miles. Not bad for someone whose orthopedic surgeon said seven years ago, “You’ll never run again. Forget about it.”