There will probably be fines involved as this is my first but here goes... Tonight, 7:00 on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology was the 18th JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. This is a 3.5 mile road race and huge corporate party held annually in various cities around the world. Runners have to be a full time employee at a registered company, municipality, school district etc. in order to participate. This race has continued to grow. This year there were over 11,000 entrants from 422 companies. Our school district puts in a team. We had 73 people from our district there. 30 of those people came from the school I teach at, so that was a great source of pride. We were all sporting our team technical shirts making it very easy to spot our group in the crowd. The race is quite interesting as about half of the registered participants walk. Most companies have a tent on site and most have food and drink in their tents after the race. It is a great place to catch up with others and do some networking as well. There is a mass start and everyone reports their own time according to the finishing clock to their team captain who in turns submits mens, womens, and coed teams of 4 based on times. There is a camera at the finish to catch those who report lower times than they actually run. Many of the participants are first time racers so dont know pace or where they should start, even though there are banners telling people where to line up. The horn went off and I was stutterstepping, trying to find some space to get a decent stride with 11,000 of my closest new friends. I was shooting for 7:00 miles so lined up at that banner. It took quite some time to find room to actually run. The first mile is all uphill then it levels off and goes back down after that. Weaving through traffic I hit the 1 mile split at 7:35, better than I was expecting. At this point I found a comfortable stride. The wind was blocked on this side of campus due to all the trees. The pack seemed to spread out and I had a good rhythm going still feeling very comfortable. Mile 2 was 14:30 for a 6:55 split. The pack around me kept thinning out and I just kept up my good rhythm. Mile 3 time was 21:40 for a 7:10 split. The finish line looks deceivingly close from the 3 mile mark but having run the cours before I knew it was really a half mile to the finish. Runners circle the corporate tents as the go to the finish. I looked up and saw my finish time of 25:15. I was happy running anything near 25:00. I was a little undertrained but well rested for the attempt. Please address any and all fines owed.

Great report - thanks for sharing! Only one detail missing - what were you wearing??

Great job! Sounds like awesome fun having so many from your school district participate. That is a big race! When you talk about a "mass start", you aren't kidding! Thanks for writing and hope to hear from you again! huskydon

11,000 new friends! Sounds like a party! You have a speedy pace there. Sweet.

Good race and great report. That is a great idea for a race. Larry

Yes, Crane....nice race! Sounds like a fun one. Looking forward to the photos. I think you may win the prize for most quickly posted RR after the race. That's efficiency!!

Hi Craneium, Good RR from what sounds like a crowded but fun race. Congratulations on your even pacing, despite the early crowds you had to fight through. What's next for you? Jay

..what a Great Race//.......excellent running......