Once again, Macquarie were crowned as the ‘Fastest Firm in the City’ with their victory at the 2019 edition of the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay Singapore, beating 147 other teams in the process.

Series takes place in 12 global cities

Taking place annually in 12 cities worldwide, the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay brought back title sponsors Bloomberg, together with Pure Fitness as the official fitness partners, Conrad Centennial Hotel as Hotel & Catering partner and Peroni as the event’s beer supplier.

Race regulations 

And for the race, each team consisted of 10 members who were tasked with running the one-mile course in the fastest time possible before passing the baton to the next colleague. 

Fastest team was Macquarie

The team to complete its 10 cumulative laps in the fastest time had been Macquarie in 53 minutes 16 seconds, just ahead of Standard Chartered Bank in second place with a time of 54 minutes 18 seconds, and Credit Agricole CIB in third spot with a timing of exactly one hour.

This is Macquarie’s seventh straight win at the event, and naturally the team is thrilled.

Win was confirmed only at the end

Said Cameron Brooks, 39, a Compliance Officer who was the team captain, “The Bloomberg Square Mile Relay is very competitive each year. At the beginning, we were all very nervous about whether we would be able to defend our title, and halfway through the race, we were uncertain if we would make first place.”

He continued, “In fact, we only knew that we had the race in the bag, in the last 200 metres of the final leg. Before that, we had no idea how fast the Standard Chartered Bank runners would be but they were not far behind. When we realised we would pull it off again, we were happy, relieved and excited at the same time.”

Putting their fastest runners first

Macquarie’s winning strategy was to put their fastest runners in front, a tried-and-tested tactic for their team.

Says Brooks, “We always use a similar strategy to put the fastest people first, so that they can get clear of the field and that helps our other runners to have a clear run, till we catch the end of the pack. It has always worked well for us.”

Consistent running also helps

To prepare for the race, Brooks added too, that it was important that the team ran constantly throughout the year, rather than leaving it to the last minute.

He explained, “We are regular runners and have been running throughout the year, but leading closer to the race, we reduced our distances but increased the intensity to get quicker, and that has paid off.”

Continued Brooks, “And next year, we’re definitely going to come back and give it our best shot again. We really enjoy this event thoroughly; this is always an amazing experience and good team-bonding session. The whole office gets behind this race.”

Ashley Miles was the fastest runner

The fastest runner of the night was Macquarie’s Ashley Miles, who ran his one-mile lap in 4 minutes 52 seconds, and the Fastest Mixed Team award went to GIC Pte Ltd with a time of 1 hour 2 minutes 10 seconds.

Macquarie also wins Fastest Female Team award

And winning the newly-introduced award category of 2019, for the Fastest Female Team was, again, Macquarie, in a time of 1 hour 13 minutes 48 seconds.

This category had been introduced to increase the amount of female participation across the race series.

Says the team captain Olivia Shepherd, 34, who works as an Associate Director in Legal and Governance, “It is amazing that the organisers are committed to encouraging female runners to be a part of the Relay.” 

And she also added, “This year, we sent three teams with 12 female runners, up from last year’s four female runners across two teams. So the new award category is effective.”

The girls had entered for fun

According to Shepherd, the Macquarie girls had entered the 2019 race just for fun and did not expect to take the title, so, their win had been a bonus for them.

She explained, “For us, it was all about the participation. We wanted to have some fun and represent the women of Macquarie. The relay, after all, is a great team event and a fantastic chance to get out of the office and do something healthy. But now that we have won, the pressure is on for us to retain the title. So we will be doing some training and will definitely be back again next year.”

Their first attempt at running one-mile

And Shepherd also admitted that her team didn’t have a strategy other than to enjoy themselves. She says, “We had a mixture of experienced and new runners on the team, but for nearly all of us, this was our first attempt at the one-mile distance.” 

She also continued, “We are more of long-distance runners so it was quite different to train and run short distance. Still, everyone wanted to do their best and we all gave it 100 per cent. The win was a bonus and a big surprise. We were all so thrilled.”

‘The Extra Mile’, a charity initiative 

Through the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay’s ‘The Extra Mile’ initiative, the series aims to address unique social challenges in each city where the race is taking place.

This had meant that ahead of taking part, the Singapore runners had been tasked with picking one of three charity causes to run for, all put forward by the Extra Mile partner, SportsCares, with each respective lap time counting towards their chosen cause. 

And the cause with the quickest average time was Access & Inclusion, receiving 25 per cent of each team’s race entry fee, totalling S$45,572. And SportsCares will now use this donation to deliver a year-long programme to address the winning cause.

Additionally, winning team Macquarie will also be donating an addition USD$20,000 to the relay’s The Extra Mile initiative.

Organisers are happy

According to the organisers, they are happy with how the event went throughout the course of the fun-filled evening.

Says James Hassett, the Managing Director of race organiser, Square Mile Sport, “The Bloomberg Square Mile Relay is an unparalleled sporting event that offers the city’s leading institutions an opportunity to come together for a night of camaraderie, competition, teamwork and networking, in support of a special cause. 

Also continued Hassett, “Singapore’s business community always displays a level of enthusiasm, competitive spirit and teamwork unlike any other city and we always look forward to coming back each year.”

Shanghai will host the final leg of the global series

And now, with the Singapore leg now done and dusted, the baton now hands to Shanghai on 25th October – for the final race of the 2019 Bloomberg Square Mile Relay global series.