The 26th annual J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge took place on 11th &12th July in Battersea Park, London, with a capacity crowd of 26,000 entrants from 595 companies.
Spirits were not dampened by our wet British summer, as the runners embraced their 5.6km challenge before enjoying post-race corporate hospitality and the opportunity to socialise and network with colleagues and clients; demonstrating just how much the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge has become a ‘must do’ event in the corporate sporting calendar.
The event once again celebrated corporate teamwork, camaraderie and community giving whilst promoting fitness in the workplace. This atmosphere resonated across the park, as individuals of all fitness abilities from senior management to interns engaged in healthy competition.
Local event sponsor Nuffield Health provided complementary post-race massages, a new (and popular) addition to the event this year! Companies were encouraged to support the fundraising campaign of event beneficiary, Barnardo’s, a not-for-profit that works with disadvantaged children and young people across the U.K. The contributions in 2011 and 2012, supplementing a donation from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, currently totals more than £150,000.
Steve Cram MBE, former 1500m World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, and ambassador for Barnardo’s started each night’s race, before completing the course himself on the second night.
Limelight Sports were responsible for the complete pre-event planning and on-site delivery of the event, including client & stakeholder liaisons, CRM, hospitality management, venue, branding, production & logistics, race management, health & safety, and event day staffing, followed by post-event evaluation.
Feedback from one of the participants, “As an experienced runner taking part in this event for the first time I was amazed that I got to the start so easily, had a reasonably clear run given the course constraints and could get away as well… I can tell you that there are races that could learn a lot from you.”
The event in numbers:
- 26,000 entrants
- 11,322 BBQ catering packages
- 2,520 catering vouchers
- 595 companies
- 327 event-day staff
- 258 cases of beer
- 69 hospitality units per night
- 55 companies pre-purchased hospitality packages
- 19:17 winning female’s race time
- 17:13 winning male’s race time
- 4 pulsed starts
- 3 MCs
- 2 race nights
- 2 hospitality villages
- 1 park
