J.P. Morgan announces details for 2018 Corporate Challenge Series

The 42^nd year of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series will look to build on the 248,937 runners and walkers it attracted in 2017.

The 42^nd consecutive year of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge will begin on Thursday, April 5 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and ultimately travel through seven countries on five continents in celebration of workplace fitness, teamwork and camaraderie.

J.P. Morgan, owner and operator of the Corporate Challenge, has finalized most of the 2018 dates and will be in touch via email with all 2017 company captains with further details before registration opens in each of the 13 cities in which the event is held.

The Corporate Challenge is the world’s largest workplace sporting/social event with a total of 248,937 runners and walkers from 7,334 companies participating in 2017.  Each event features a 3.5-mile (5.6km) road race, the exact same proprietary distance of the very first Corporate Challenge, held on July 13, 1977 in New York’s Central Park. The Series has been held continually every year since.

Here is the 2018 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series schedule to date, with seven stops in the United States, and one each in Australia, China, England, Germany, Singapore and South Africa:

CITY	COUNTRY	DATE	LOCATION	ENTRY FEE
Johannesburg	South Africa	Thursday, April 5	The Wanderers Club	R 170
Singapore	Singapore	Thursday, April 26	Marina Bay	SGD 70
Rochester	USA	Tuesday, May 22	Frontier Field	$37
Chicago	USA	Thursday, May 24	Grant Park	$52
New York	USA	Wednesday, May 30	Central Park	$52
New York	USA	Thursday, May 31	Central Park	$52
Syracuse	USA	June TBD	Onondaga Lake Park	$37
Frankfurt	Germany	Thursday, June 7	Opernplatz	€25
Buffalo	USA	Thursday, June 14	Delaware Park	$37
Boston	USA	June TBD	Boston Common	$52
London	England	Wednesday, July 4	Battersea Park	£31
London	England	Thursday, July 5	Battersea Park	£31
San Francisco	USA	September TBD	McCovey Cove	$50
Shanghai	China	TBD	Oriental Sports Ctr.	RMB 200
Sydney	Australia	Wednesday, October 31	Centennial Park	AUD 62.50

 

We are in the final straightaway in planning for the 35^th running of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Championship.  Details on the location of our unifying event will be announced soon.

Andrew Cook, a Senior Analyst for National Grid in Boston, worked with his colleagues to participate at several Corporate Challenge events in 2017. 

“Some of our employee runners across New York and New England were sharing how excited they were to run as a team,” Cook said. “We began sharing stories of events we’d participated in, including the Corporate Challenge races. We discussed how there was no centralized visibility for these events, and how employees often didn’t realize the company was building teams.

“Someone said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to find a way for National Grid runners to connect?’ So, we set up a National Grid Employee Runner Facebook page as a spin-off of our Work and Life Matters program,” Cook related. “We were also able to identify many races where there would be National Grid teams.  We developed a poster campaign to promote all the events (and get employees thinking about training for them well in advance), both on our NG Runner Facebook page and in our weekly employee newsletter.

“As a result, (in 2017),” Cook continued, “we (had) one of the largest Corporate Challenge teams across our U.S. service area. From Buffalo to Boston to Brooklyn, more than 400 employees will be Bringing Energy to Life at Corporate Challenge races in Boston, Buffalo, Syracuse and New York.” 

The Corporate Challenge is an all-inclusive event, with companies like National Grid entering several times in its region, to multinational companies registering employees at races on several continents, to local manufacturing and entrepreneurial outfits entering a small number of employees in one market.  If you are a newcomer to the Corporate Challenge, or simply want to introduce the event to a new crop of prospective entrants at your company, check out our FAQs.