Friday, May 23, 2014

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge race recap

Last night I ran the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge for the first time.


This race, which is a 3.5-mile course, draws enormous participation. I read that there were almost 600 companies participating this year, sending over 25,000 registrants. In terms of drawing participants who are not seasoned runners, this race has to be the largest in the area.

Unfortunately I'm still having some injury issues. I'll get into more details another time (I did end up sitting out the Chicago Spring Half last weekend). But with the injury bug lurking, and with the Soldier Field 10 taking place tomorrow, I planned to take this race easy. This was further cemented by many folks telling me that this race was not a PR-attemptable race by any stretch of the imagination, given the crowds. They said it would feel like this:


They were absolutely right. I've run some very crowded races in my time, but I truly didn't realize how packed-in it would be. The whole area was chaos. I know the race site pretty well, and my company gave us instructions as to where its hospitality tent was located. Even so, with all the road closures, public transit route diversions, and sea of people/tents/portapotties, it took me some time to find my company's tent.

After waiting in line to use the portapotty, I literally squeezed into the starting corrals. Participants had been given bibs in different colors corresponding to where they were supposed to line up. Nobody paid any attention to that, though - it was a complete mishmosh. The corrals were so packed that I had trouble bending down to put on my knee straps without hitting the people around me.


While waiting to start, I randomly ran into an old friend from college named Jason. I hadn't seen him in at least five years! Unfortunately, the emcee was announcing a seemingly endless list of companies participating and the speakers were set at a very high volume. It was hard to converse. But it was still nice to catch up with him for a few minutes.

I finally crossed the start line about 22 minutes after the gun went off. It was like a traveling mosh pit and there were so many people walking in tandem groups of up to five people across. Originally I was not intending to bob and weave through the crowd. However, there were so many walkers that I didn't have much of a choice.


Since I wasn't trying to race, I had wanted to enjoy the downtown course scenery. Unfortunately, it was too jammed in to do anything but focus on how to navigate the sea of people. I saw many participants wearing jeans and sandals and other non-typical running attire.

The course covered a lot of distance on Lower Wacker Drive and Lower Columbus Drive. For those of you not familiar, these are double-decker roads. To illustrate, here's a picture of Upper Wacker:


And here's a picture of Lower Wacker:


As you can tell, it is not a good thing to be running on the lower-level roads. It was stuffy and claustrophobic, my Garmin lost signal, and the limited lighting made it even tougher to battle the crowds.

The course was an out-and-back that included several interim loops. The loops went in and out of the lower-level roads a couple of times. Each time we emerged into open sky, I took a deep breath to revel in the fresh air. Then, I gritted my teeth every time we went back down.

I saw dozens of folks blatantly cheating by bypassing some course loops altogether, and/or cutting the out-and-back short. I even saw some folks turning back at about a half mile in, which would mean they only covered one total mile round-trip. That made me shake my head. I can only imagine some of those folks were inexperienced participants who must have been thinking something along the lines of this:


I didn't see a Mile 1 marker, so I didn't think there were going to be any markers on the course. But then, I did see markers at Mile 2 and Mile 3. Since my Garmin had lost signal several times, my splits were all over the place. At the Mile 3 marker, my Garmin was only showing a distance of about 1.7 miles.

The course remained packed and filled with walkers to the very end. I finished in 34:52.

More crowds were jammed in right at the finish line trying to get water and bananas. It took several minutes just to exit the finish line area, then another 10 minutes to get back to my company's tent. Once I got there, though, I did enjoy the hospitality offerings and getting to meet/hang out with coworkers in a non-office environment.

Closing thoughts
The event is definitely much more about company team-building than the actual race. Despite the fact that there were so many companies represented, it seemed that pretty much everyone defaulted to running with their own coworkers and hanging out in their own respective company tents afterwards. (Comparatively, I've run Race Judicata in the past where the companies would mingle across each others' tents and trade food offerings, etc. Not the case here.)

This is an expensive race, given the 3.5-mile distance. (On a side note, I heard a lot of folks referring to this race as a 5K. Folks, a 5K is 3.1 miles. The Chase Corporate Challenge is NOT a 5K!)

Registration fees were about $50 per individual. This is not to mention that each company (not the race organizer) provides its own race shirts and hospitality tent. Thankfully, my company covered my registration fee. I understand that the race proceeds go to charity. However, if I had to pay for registration myself, I would not participate in this race again.

My next race: the Soldier Field 10 tomorrow!

20 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds like a rip off and NOT fun at all. I personally hate races that are this crowded. Then to top it off with all the non-runners blocking the path and cheating on the distance ... ??!! I would have probably punched someone.

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    1. Yeah, it's a good thing that this race's proceeds go to charity and that I didn't have to pay for my own entry fee! Otherwise, the knee-jerk reaction to punch someone would have been much, much higher!!! =D

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  2. I agree with several things. It was very hard for me to get into a start corral. I think I was further up though because I started within about 5 mins and even though the race was crowded, I was still mostly able to run ok. I did see many people cheat and was really disappointed at that. Also, there were TONS of people completely cutting me off (so much more and much closer than normal races). I chalk it up to bad edicate bc there are tons of people that don't really ever race. I did enjoy the run as far as a "team building" experience. Running on lower wacker was awful. Awful! The smell was bad and it got hot down there. Wish it was on regular open space streets. And there was a 1 mile marker :)

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    1. Oh wow - who knew that it would make that much of a difference to start 5 minutes after the gun versus 22 minutes? I am disappointed to hear that you saw so many people cheating, especially when you started much earlier than me, too. But I guess that so many people ignored the "corral" system that it was pretty much a free for all, anyways. Running on the lower streets was really the worst. But, I imagine it must be easier to close down those lower streets to traffic than the upper streets. It's good to know that there was a Mile 1 marker, but I am mystified as to how I missed it!!! I did look for your company's tent, by the way. But given how difficult it was to find anything, it's a wonder that I found my own company's tent!!! Yikes!!!

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  3. Eek, glad I decided to skip it!

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    1. Yeah, it was definitely a smart move for you to skip it. You didn't miss anything from a runner's perspective!

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  4. Yikes! Sounds like a total mess with a big price tag. I agree running on those lower streets pretty much blows. See you tomorrow bright and early!

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    1. Yes, it's a really good thing that the proceeds go to charity and that I didn't have to pay the registration myself! Thanks again for the ride to/from Soldier Field on Saturday. It was so good to see you and catch up! Enjoy your race-cation!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. No way I would pay for this myself. My race report would be exactly like this - started 20 minutes after the start, hardly got into a start corral, weaving around people, not having room to get into a groove, herded like cattle at the end, and all the people cutting the turn arounds! If I do it again I will input a fast time so I can start close to the front.

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    1. Yes, you pretty much nailed it right there!!! It was an unmitigated disaster. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd jump to run this race again in the future even with my company paying for it. I almost think it would be better to just go attend the festivities as a spectator, you know? There'd be way less hassle and frustration for the actual race, but you still get to hang out with coworkers for that team-building aspect!

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  6. Man, sounds like nothing has changed (except maybe more people?) since I did this in 2009. Makes me not feel so bad I've had to miss it (company issues). I am impressed with your time with the crowds though!

    5K, giggle.

    Good luck at SF! Hope you are feeling better!

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    1. Yeah, don't feel bad at all about having to miss this race. You are not missing anything from a runner's perspective. Thank you for the kind words on my time despite the crowds! I've watched a lot of football in my life, maybe it's helped me via osmosis? LOL

      It was so good to see you at SF this past Saturday!!! I am really glad I got to meet G, S, and L in person, too! And do let me know about your plans for lunch this Thursday. =)

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  7. A running mosh pit! Lol. I ran last year and experienced terrible road rage! I started close to the front and still had to dodge walkers. They need to give people some race etiquette tips! A seeded corral system (even for anyone who has a time in ANY race would help! Nice pace all things considered!! Hope you SF 10 goes well!

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    1. You are exactly right, road rage is a PERFECT way to describe how I was feeling while running! That's so annoying that you (justifiably) started close to the front but still had to dodge walkers when you ran it last year. I am curious what kind of race organizing experience the race organizers have for this race, too, because they could make SO many improvements. Oh well. Thanks for the kind words on my pace! What races do you have coming up next? I know I'll see you at Esprit de She, but hopefully I'll get to catch up with you in person sooner than that!!!

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  8. I've never ran this race and don't think I want to.

    Boo, for those cheating. Oh and boo again for it being so crowded. Definitely NOT fun.

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    1. From a runner's perspective, none of us are missing out on anything by not participating in this race! It really is all about the company team-building. I was really disappointed at all the cheaters, though. Why would you sign up to participate in a race that is a comparatively short distance where walking is very common, but then not even see it all the way through? Grrrrr.

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  9. I last ran this race about 5 years ago and apparently nothing has changed. I remember the people in jeans standing right at the front near the starting line. I also remember people cheating by turning around earlier than they were supposed to. The one good thing is that my companies always paid for my entries, and finish times were self-reported, so I guess I was never too upset.

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    1. Based on everything that I've heard, this race just gets more and more crowded and walker-filled every year. That is really disappointing to hear that it's consistent for some folks in jeans to start in front and/or to cheat. Grrrr. At least this year the finish times were chip-timed. Although, they didn't have any interim timing mats on the course to nab the cheaters. (I wonder if they questioned the folks that turned around at the half-mile mark and thereby finished in some insanely short amount of time?)

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  10. Yep. This race is not a runner's race, for sure. Unless you're super-duper fast and start right up front. I like to do it (and I admit, I cheat and start in an earlier corral) for the camaraderie but I know that it's going to be super crowded and I'll be dodging people for at least the first two miles. On the plus side, it always keeps me from going out too fast. On the down side, I'll never know how fast I could actually run it! I never pay to run (and wouldn't, honestly) so I don't mind the craziness. After 4 years, I know what to expect.

    As for the people who turn around early, well, they probably just want to beat the rest of their coworkers to the beer back at their tent.

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    1. The horrible thing is that even if you start right up front, it seems like there are still plenty of walkers who will barricade the path! Blugh. But indeed, it would be somewhat nice to use this as a supported training run. It's too bad, though, because I would like to be able to add the 3.5-mile distance to my PR repertoire. But it'll never happen with this race.

      GOOD CALL on the folks who just want to get back to the beer at their tent! Some of my coworkers were debating if it was better to finish early or to start late to get the best access to the beer, LOL.

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