For race information in German, go to www.jpmccc.de

The real race winner For the fifth consecutive year, The Staedel Museum was the event beneficiary. At left, John Jetter, Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for JPMorgan in Frankfurt, presents a check for 45,000 Euros to The Staedel Museum's Prof. Dr. Herbert Beck (left in photo). (Albert Harder photos)

Fast times, great spirit, big numbers
help Frankfurt set the standard again
Ex-Olympian Petra Wassiluk wins in 18:30
Official results are posted | The 2003 race in photos

FRANKFURT, June 18, 2003 – Petra Wassiluk, a two-time German Olympian, says she never looks at her watch when running and wasn’t tempted to glance at it while covering the 3.5 mile, metropolitan course at the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge® in Frankfurt.

“I’m retired for a year and one-half and I run for the fun of it,” said Wassiluk, an organizer of road races for the company Motion Event. “And when I looked out on the race track for this event, I saw a lot of people out here simply for the fun of it. This is what running should be.”

Runners stream past the starting line.

Indeed, the 11th annual JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Frankfurt again set the standard for corporate fitness and camaraderie. For the third consecutive year, the event drew more than 40,000 total participants and it remains the largest road race in all of Europe and one of the Top 10 in the world.

Wassiluk competed for Germany in the 5000 meters at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the 2000 Games in Sydney. She showed her fitness in this one, crossing the finish line as the first woman in 18:30, one of fastest female times in JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series history; even if she didn’t realize it.

“All I know is I was tired, I was thirsty, and I thought I was glad to be retired,” laughed Wassiluk.

But what impressed the Olympian – and race organizers – even more was that the last of the 45,089 participants crossed the finish line in one hour, 14 minutes. Two starting lines that merged one-quarter mile into the event and thorough cooperation with the Frankfurt police and city officials made it happen.

“To have this many people come out, and have them finish that fast, it’s almost like a work of art,” said Wassiluk, looking at it through a race organizer’s eyes. “I hope my events have the same level of success.”

Joining Wassiluk in the winner’s circle was another first-time Corporate Challenge participant. Oliver Mintzlaff, a sports marketing manager at Puma, won the men’s crown in a rapid 16:20.

A German half-marathon national champion and nine-time medalist in the European Championships, Mintzlaff is used to running at the front of the pack. But he’s never competed with such a pack.

A perfect opportunity to marry passions of work/running

“Forty-five thousand runners is unbelievable,” he said. “And this was the perfect combination for me. I love running, but I also have a great job at Puma and I want everybody to buy our shoes. So this was an opportunity to marry my two passions – running and work.

“Hey, that’s what your event is about, isn’t it?” Mintzlaff laughed.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

The participants came from throughout the German countryside to compete on the main downtown thoroughfares of the European banking hub. They came from 200 cities in Germany – including Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Munich – consumed 50,000 bananas, 46,000 power bars and 100,000 bottles of water. It took 19 trailer trucks to transport the necessary race materials and over 250 buses to bring in the runners. More than 50 journalists were credentialed and provided coverage seen in over 100 million households.

Yeah, this concept has taken hold in Germany. And it all started with about 700 runners on a dirt path hard by the River Main back in 1993. Now Allianz-Dresdner Bank (with 1,349 entrants) has nearly doubled that all by itself.

“Sport and business go hand in hand,” said John Jetter, Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for JPMorgan in Frankfurt. “This is the equilibrium after a hard day at the office. I think it’s very important to be outside doing something active.”

Wilfried Gayer, company captain for Siemens, agreed that productivity and recreation activity go hand-in-hand.

“We increased our participants from 650 to 925 this year,” Gayer said. “We all see the value in getting out there and doing something good for ourselves. And it’s also good business. We are a large corporation with many offices in (the German State of) Hessen and it’s important to show our strength in numbers.”

For fifth consecutive year, The Staedel Museum benefits

Another set of important numbers on this night: JPMorgan presented a check for 45,000 Euros to The Staedel Museum, the primary beneficiary of the event. This is the fifth consecutive year the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge has partnered with The Staedel and in that time the race has grown from 20,000 participants to its current level.

The donation was one reason why Gerhard Zuerker and 150 of his colleagues from BASF bussed in over 150 kilometers for the event from Ludwigshafen.

“It’s our second time here and we are very impressed by what the event is all about,” said Zuerker. “It’s definitely worth the time and the effort because of what it does for our employees. It’s healthy and enjoyable.”

Members of the Siemens team on their way to the starting line.

As for the race itself, Wassiluk outdistanced 2002 champion Victoria Willcox-Heidner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers by 66 seconds. Willcox-Heidner had won this event in 19:36 last year.

“Competing at the Olympics obviously is so earnest,” said Wassiluk, the only woman Olympian to ever compete in the Corporate Challenge. “But I can’t tell you how much I like the space I’m in now. I enjoy entering smaller races so I can train down. Instead of running 12 times a week, I run four. But, I got to admit, I didn’t know what I was getting into with this race. It’s a huge deal.”

Mintzlaff broke the hold Entrium Direct Bankers has held on the men’s title, besting Dirk Nuernberger of Entrium by 15 seconds and his teammate, Habib Boukechab, by 18. Entrium had taken the first men’s spot the last three years.

“After 3K I pushed the pace a little bit and I was alone,” said Mintzlaff, a long, lean runner. “It was a good feeling to be alone, other guys 60 meters in the back. This is not my favorite distance, but I felt good and fit. It’s good to know I can run with the best runners in Germany at any distance.”

There was also a piece of Corporate Challenge history made with this event. For the first time, the start of the event was broadcast live on the World Wide Web. The Internet broadcast was provided by the Hessischer Rundfunk television network and provided simultaneously on the network’s web site.

The JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series returns to the United States on June 25 for the third 2003 event in New York’s Central Park, supporting the Central Park Conservancy.