This past Thursday I ran the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge and my company has been running it for many years now. It’s always fun because we have runners of all levels. Some come for the running but most come for the team bonding after the race. We typically meet up and grab a beer and some food after.
The first Corporate Challenge was July 13, 1977 in Central park and was inspired by the firms who sponsor the NYC marathon. The event hosts wanted to look for a way to have an event just for corporate runners. Nowadays, all first place winners for each city will be invited to the championship that has an “olympic” style rotation where they visit cities throughout the challenge series. This race started with 200 runners from 50 companies and has grown to what it is today in 2016 at 254,501 entrants from 7,612 companies for 13 cities in seven countries on five continents. (Source)
For the everyday runner, it’s definitely not known as one of those races you PR. The goal of this race is really to just have fun and an opportunity for some team bonding. BUT…I actually did PR!! Technically a PR for a 3.5 mile race isn’t too difficult because they are so rare, but my 5k time for the race was also a PR for me! I ran the 3.5 mile race 23:48 (6:48 pace) and my 5k time was 20:55 (6:43 pace). Previously I think my fastest was 6:58 pace! I’m pretty excited because I felt pretty good after and have hope I can make some progress for my marathon training if I stick to it. I had my coworker, Jay, take a celebratory jump photo for me. And then I insisted that he take one too. Let’s just say that I went for form and he went for height :)…
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