As you might have read last week, we had the opportunity this past Saturday to compete in the Cuervo Games, which succinctly can be described as an American Gladiators-themed series of team events. At the urging of a blogging friend, we put together a team (Team RandBall, featuring us, Jody, MC Creme Fraiche and The RandBall Better Half) and headed over to a parking lot in downtown Minneapolis at 2 p.m. Saturday not really knowing what to expect. In the aftermath, the good folks from the Cuervo Games sent us pictures (there were plenty, but we are only, for narcissistic and humiliation purposes, posting ones of us). Here are the things that stood out:

*On our first event, which was a team relay run up this giant inflatable thing, with two people throwing inflated barrels at us, Team RandBall managed to grab only two of the required four flags. And in the roughly 8 seconds yours truly was competing, we managed to get a skin burn on the palm of our hand. It was at this point that it became painfully obvious that the soft, white collar hands of a journalist were not made for real labor like the Cuervo Games.

*Our second event was a rock climbing wall with a special bonus -- 40 gallons of water (at least that's the figure we remember) were dumped upon our team as we tried to get to the top within 45 seconds. As someone who has never tried a rock climbing wall, we got about halfway up, got completely soaked, and basically gave up. Seriously, we could not wait for the air horn to signal the end so we could let go and float to the ground via our harness and belay system. If that sounds kind of weak, hollow and afraid ... well yes, you are getting the picture. Only one member of the team -- heroic Jody -- made it to the top.

*Our third and final event (one other event was broken at the time) was the most ridiculous. It amounted to climbing up about 25-30 feet off the ground, getting strapped in again via a harness and then trying to walk across shaky planks while grabbing these giant foam "leaves." Originally, we saddled MC Creme Fraiche and Jody with this two-person task, but MC goaded us into taking his place at the last minute. Video at the bottom shot by MC Creme Fraiche. That's us on the left. You know, the one who grabs one stupid leaf and gets across as fast as possible, leaving Jody to do any of the real harvesting work.

*In all seriousness, we had a blast doing this -- even though we weren't very good at it, considering we don't like heights and don't climb walls very well. The Cuervo folks were great throughout. All-star treatment for Team RandBall. Seriously, they could not have been nicer or better prepared throughout our entire failing process. Also, via twitter we learned that RandBallers Darlosity and Flextopia stopped by for some of the fun. Fellas: you should have said hi, or at least offered to do the climbing wall instead of us.