The 15th edition of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge flagged off last evening at 5.30pm on St. Andrew’s Road in the historic Civic District. A massive crowd of 14,256 runners from 387 companies took part, running the scenic 5.6km route from the National Gallery Singapore to the F1 Pit Building.

Click here to view the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge 2018 photos

The biggest corporate running event in Singapore by number of participants, the largest three contingents at this year’s J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge were StarHub (602 runners), Deloitte & Touche (501 runners) and SAP (325 runners).

There had actually been some slight changes to this year’s route; previous edition of this run had flagged off around the Merlion Bridge area.

Gracing the event as the guest of honour, had been Grace Fu, Minster for Culture, Community and Youth, who had also participated in the race herself.

I had been invited by J.P. Morgan to take part in the 5.6km run – as a media guest of the company. 

Owned and operated by J.P. Morgan, the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge promotes corporate fitness, teamwork and camaraderie amongst colleagues and clients, with running events in 13 different cities across seven countries around the world. Singapore is the second stop of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series 2018. 

In order to get ready for my run, I reached the race site quite early, at about 4.35pm and waited for the event to flag off in the comfortable air conditioning of the National Gallery Singapore.

But on hindsight though, I think that perhaps it may have been a better idea for me to have waited at the Padang instead. This is because in order to reach the start line, I had walked in a huge circle due to the road blockages at the area and the start pen was filling up quickly at the same time too.

And in the start pen, I could barely breathe, because everyone was really packed closely together. In fact it had felt so tight that there was literally no room left to stretch and do some dynamic warm-up exercises, before the race. 

I have run many races but I usually do not really recall the start pen being as crowded as the one at the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge. Instead, I think that it may have helped if there had been a wider space available for the start pen area.

At least I had managed to get into the first wave though, but I was stuck somewhere in the centre of the wave by the time flag-off approached. 

As I waited for flag off, I took a look at the runners around me. Most were dressed in company tee shirts that had been printed specially for the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge, but others had been dressed in more funky apparel such as SpiderMan or Star Wars themed tees, possibly in an attempt to spice up the running route.

There had been five waves of runners altogether and each one was being flagged off at eight minute intervals – in a bid to reduce congestion.

Prior to the flag off, the event emcee created some hype to get runners excited about the race and a group of drummers had also added to the atmosphere when they played their drums. It was definitely a great way to get the runners eager to start running.

The roads had been partially closed to allow the runners to have some space to themselves  to run without having to worry about traffic. So that was quite good, as it meant that we did not need to fear about our safety.

It had been a rather scenic route too, and it passed by many of Singapore’s iconic landmarks such as the Singapore Flyer and the Sports Hub. This is indeed a great way to showcase the city of Singapore.

Said Steffan Pfeifer, 39 and working in Credit Risk Management, “The route was very nice. There was a lot of sightseeing points on the way such as the Flyer, and the Museum. It was also a very nice and flat course too and there was not much traffic on the way so it was really well organised.”

However, the first 500 metres or so, were really congested with human traffic and the roads were also quite narrow at this point of the run.

So as a result, I found myself caught in several small bottlenecks where I had been shuffling rather than running. This was really frustrating and annoying and I found myself running a bit faster than I had intended to, in an attempt to try and get away from the human congestion and bottleneck areas.

But at least the crowd had spaced out after about a kilometre and from that point onwards, I was able to actually run properly for the rest of the 5.6km route.

Along the way, I noticed that the distance markings were very large, easy to see and quite accurate too, tying in with the readings on my Garmin watch so that was good. As well, there were large signages telling runners which direction to head, that is, to go straight or to make a u-turn. These were quite idiot-proof and it thus meant that runners would not get lost along the way.

I reached the F1 Pit Building after about two kilometres of running, and I must say that it had felt quite depressing and mentally deflating, to have to run past the finishing point when I had more than three kilometres left to run – this was more than half of the race still to go.

But I continued on running. Along the way though, there were two hydration stations both serving water which I thought is more than adequate to serve the needs of the runners. For a short run of 5.6km, I do not really require hydration so I didn’t stop at the first station and for the second one, I just took a swig of water. This was cool but unfortunately not ice-cold though.

Agreed Steffan, “There were lots of water stations even though it was a short race.”

It was also around this point when I spotted the frontrunners at the opposite end of the u-turn, heading back towards the F1 Pit Building and they were really fast!

The tropical humidity kicked in at the halfway point of the run. As such, I could feel my breathing becoming more laboured and my heart rate was increasing faster than I had originally intended, going into this run.

Said Steffan, “At the start, I was running a good pace but then the humidity and heat kicked in towards the finish so we were all struggling. I would have preferred the weather to have been be colder to run.”

I think that the weather also didn’t help with the humidity levels apparently being higher than expected. While it was not actually raining, I could see the sky gradually growing blacker; I suspected that the impeding downpour was making the air around me more humid too. As such, panic kicked in and I was wondering to myself whether I could get back to the F1 Pit Building before the downpour arrived.

My heart rate continued to rise as I tried to beat the rain. But I tried to at least maintain my heart rate in the Steady Zone. It drifted towards the upper end of my Steady Zone in the latter stages of the run though and I fought to keep it down.

Throughout the long stretch of running up and down Republic Avenue, my mind also began to play tricks on me and I was wondering where the u-turn point was. 

There was a moment when I thought I would never see it, but eventually I saw the u-turn point and this brought a smile to my face because I knew that the end was now near.

I crossed the finish line in roughly about 33 minutes. I had managed to beat the downpour, getting back before the sky had completely opened up. Unfortunately, I had been caught in some slight drizzle though. Still, I managed to take a few pictures at the end point before walking over to the finisher area to collecting my finisher entitlements – a tee shirt, a shoe bag, a can of 100PLUS, a 500ml bottle of water and a banana. 

I thought that the finisher area was quite spacious and well organised. There was plenty of room for runners to walk through and I had been in and out of there within about five minutes. As well, the various sizes of the finisher tees were labeled clearly with large signages, so this meant that runners could easily see what was available.

It had also been good that at least the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge had women’s sizes for the tee shirts. But unfortunately though, the smallest size available – the Women’s Small, was still a little bit big for me, when I tried it on.

After the run, there was plenty to see and do for runners. Many of the companies had set up tents for their employees, with several of the corporate tents catering buffet food for their hungry staff.

And for many of the runners, mingling with their colleagues and clients after the run, was a great form of networking and bonding over shared interests and outside of work issues.

Said Ankit Khanbelwal, 34, a banker, “It is a good way to bond because everyone is in one place. So we can talk to a lot of people and meet new people at the same time. So having this annual run is a great idea.”

For beverages provided, the J.P. Morgan tent had offered complimentary beer, soft drinks and juices.

It was also a great way to shelter from the downpour from inside the tent. By now, a downpour had hit the F1 Pit Building with full force. I thanked my lucky stars that I was not out there still running, though I did feel sorry for the runners from the later waves who were still on the course and had been getting completely drenched as a result. 

I had noticed that some runners had ponchos on though, but from my previous experiences, the usage of such ponchos are more helpful in drizzle or moderate rain, rather than a downpour.

As well, there was also food and beverages available for purchase on site and these ranged from Western food like sandwiches and pastries, to hot Asian meals. So there was a rather wide variety.

Some runners pointed out that their favourite had been the the post-run beer though, which had been offered for purchase at the race site, as well as for free at the J.P. Morgan tent.

Said Ankit, “I loved the beer at the end of the run the most! It’s always beer first, then food, for me.”

The prize giving ceremony for the event winners had also been brought indoors as well, due to the wet weather.

When the rain had cleared, I headed out towards the race village and had a chat with emcee, Ross Sarpani, and female winner, Suzy Walsham, from Symantec.

Said Bhaskar, “The logistics, transport and management were good and the baggage handling was also done well.”

Overall though, despite a few shortcomings with the congestion at the beginning, this year’s edition of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge was quite well organised despite the rain – which of course, nobody can really control.

And agreed Bhaskar, “This is my sixth time taking part in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge and I think everything was good. I cannot think of any improvements.”

The event organisers are also quite pleased with having staged another successful instalment of their signature run here in Singapore. 

Said Edmund Lee, Senior Country Officer for J.P. Morgan Singapore, “The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge  is an incredible commitment to the corporate community in Singapore that brings thousands of executives and colleagues together for an evening of teamwork and fun.”

He added, “It’s great that we flagged off the race in the Civic District – the birthplace of modern Singapore – for the second year in a row. This is the fifteenth year that we have now held the Corporate Challenge in Singapore and it has been another successful and enjoyable night.”

Click here to view the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge 2018 photos

Thanks J.P. Morgan for the race slot and the media/VIP passes.