JPMorgan Corporate Challenge

The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge is an annual series of 3.5-mile (5.63 km) road footraces owned and operated by JPMorgan Chase, with an intended focus on promoting fitness, camaraderie and team work to employees of local businesses and organizations.[1] Teams are organized by company or organization, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation celebrates the participants by making a donation to local charities.[1]

History

The Corporate Challenge was founded in 1977 by Manufacturers Hanover with a single race in New York City, with 200 runners from 50 companies. It has since grown to include 13 races in seven countries on five continents, with total participation in 2017 of 248,937 entrants from 7,334 companies.

The events are all-inclusive of skill levels and age, with nearly equal numbers of racers, joggers and walkers. Throughout the 2017 Series, participation was approximately 53-percent male, 47-percent female. Seven of the 13 Corporate Challenge races in 2017 achieved a full capacity of entrants and most had a pre- and post-race hospitality component, where companies could gather to celebrate their participation.

The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series will be marking its 42nd consecutive year of operation in 2018. Through all 42 years, the Corporate Challenge has been owned and operated by J.P. Morgan and its predecessor firms. Manufacturer Hanover was the title owner of the Corporate Challenge from 1977-91. The event was called the Chemical Bank Corporate Challenge from 1992-95, the Chase Corporate Challenge 1996-2000, the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2001-10, and by its current name, the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge, since 2011.

The unifying event of the Series is the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Championship, which features the first-place men's, women's and mixed teams from each of the 13 Series cities. The Championship was first held in 1983, and the 34th Championship was conducted on 13 June 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany. Aaron Bienenfeld of Frankfurter Laufshop (Frankfurt) and Trisha Byler of DuPont (Rochester) earned the men's and women's individual titles. Airbnb, Google (San Francisco) and Morgan Stanley (New York)captured the mixed, men's and women's team titles, respectively.

Results
Overhead view from the Frankfurt J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge
Corporate Challenge participation
City 2017 2016
Date Runners Companies Date Runners Companies
Johannesburg, South Africa 30 March 14,006 269 7 April 13,796 237
Singapore 27 April 14,239 318 28 April 14,202 351
Chicago, Illinois 25 May 27,114 617 26 May 27,037 683
Rochester, New York 11 July 7,496 329 24 May 10,236 402
Buffalo, New York 15 June 12,446 358 23 June 12,488 383
Frankfurt, Germany 13 June 63,445 2,419 15 June 68,119 2,633
New York City 31 May 15,000 354 1 June 15,000 350
New York City 1 June 15,000 338 2 June 15,000 357
Syracuse, New York 6 June 8,287 285 7 June 7,862 280
Boston, Massachusetts 8 June 9,006 364 9 June 9,475 324
London, England 5 July 14,898 361 6 July 13,776 372
London, England 20 July 14,346 419 21 July 14,099 357
San Francisco, California 7 September 10,858 354 8 September 10,542 367
Shanghai, China 7 November 5,995 190 20 October 4,900 140
Sydney, Australia 1 November 8,804 391 9 November 8,586 353

2020 Virtual Race Controversy

Due to the social distancing restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 race was to be held "virtually", with participants installing an app to track their performance. Over 3,000 companies and 100,000 participants registered for the free event in the inaugural year. Making it the largest virtual race in history.

However, the iOS & Android apps were not released in time for the start of the two week event period. When the apps were released several days after the start of the event they had significant bugs that prevented them from saving users' details and recording competitor's running performances correctly. A manual results submission option was presented in addition to troubleshooting tips for those who desired to use the event's app.

Despite the fact that many competitors did not even start the race due to the overwhelming technical problems in the apps, "Finisher" T-Shirts were still sent to those who did not take part in the event.

References
  1. "2007 marks 31st annual running of JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge". Official Corporate Challenge web site. Retrieved 1 June 2007.
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