Is anyone signed up to a JP Morgan Corporate Challenge race? They are a series of races for those in the corporate world in quite a few major metropolitan cities around the globe. My work fields a team for the Boston race, so I'm signed up to run in late June. Anyone else ever run the Boston race or plan on doing so this year? Is it a true 3.5 miles?
The Chicago Race was short by a good 200 yards last year. It wouldn't surprise me if a few other courses are short too.
The '07 Chicago Corporate Challenge is probably the worst run race I've ever run. My complaints are these:
1. Terrible course.
2. Take your own time and report it? Seriously. (I realize this is not a problem unique to Chicago)
3. Why not just make these races 5k? 3.5 miles seems unnecessary.
This will be my third year, and it's an event I look forward to. Yes, there are big crowds and the lack of chip timing means that you should line up under a faster pace marker than you plan to run just because everyone else is doing it. Otherwise, you will lose a couple of minutes just getting to the starting line. That may not seem like much , but those minutes kept our honest womens' team from qualifying for the championship last year. But it's a big team building event for our company, and we have a whole spectrum of abilities from top 10 runners to walkers.
I ran the boston race last year. Honestly, It's an all right event because so many people are there but as a race don't have high expectations. Getting to the front of line is like getting to the front of a crowded concert. Plan on getting there early if you want to run fast. Yes it is 3.5 miles.
Yeeeehaaaaa. Drunken frat boys in jeans, fat asses who think it's so funny and walkers who think they should line up in front because they are such important titans in the office.
A miserable waste of time. Go run anywhere else.
That's one opinion. I personally get a kick out of seeing the weekend warriers at the starting line. It only takes a few hundred meters for them to go away.My wife puts up with a lot of crap for my running and racing, this is at least partial payback. Our corporate team has been lucky enough to qualify for the championships the last few years, so staying in a good hotel in midtown Manhattan courtesy of my employer is a treat for my wife and family.
It sucks wrote:
Yeeeehaaaaa. Drunken frat boys in jeans, fat asses who think it's so funny and walkers who think they should line up in front because they are such important titans in the office.
A miserable waste of time. Go run anywhere else.
People suggested the Chicago course was short last year, yet they didn't seem to adjust it this year. The winning time (16:03) was ridiculously fast, though Ptacek was a 4:04 miler in college recently. I didn't see any mile markers until mile 3. The last .5 was definitely short, as I ran it in 2:30, but wasn't finishing THAT hard off a 6:19 pace.
It's okay for bonding with co-workers, but I prefer city races in Lincoln Park where there's some soft trail.
Rochester held it's Corporate Challenge last night. There were over 11,000 "runners". My garmin 205 measured the course at 3.55 miles. The additional was in the 2nd mile according to my GPS.
Winning time for the men was 17:16 this year and the same guy ran 16:53 last year in much warmer weather. Winning women was 20:16.
Overall it's a good event, but like others said, get to the front, unless you enjoy weaving around slower runners for the first 1/2 mile. I think all CC's have you report your own time.
-MK
In rochester, the 2nd mile seemed a little long to me and it measured a little long according to the garmin on one of my teammates. It's a big clusterf*** at the start - not a big deal to me, but the women on our team have to battle to make up time at the start. How about requiring any competitive team to wear chips and have timing mats at the start and finish. Seems like a no brainer to me. We'd gladly pay extra for the chip rental, since the current system discourages women and moderately fast males.