JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, running

Beverly Jenkins, anchor of the six-time defending Female champion Royal Mail Letters, comes home a happy winner in London in July.

London, England (Sept. 3, 2004) – Strategy can be everything in chess, business, and the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge®. Just ask London 's Ove Arup and Partners.

The company has been competing in London 's Battersea Park for years and finished a commendable third in 2002 and 2003 in the Male division. The fact is, with fleet runners such as Company Captain Andrew Dunwoody leading the way, Ove Arup would have won team titles in many other cities. The only problem was that it kept running into the juggernaut that is Royal Mail Letters.

It used to be that Royal Mail Letters was known in corporate running circles primarily for its Female team. Led by multi-Championship winner Beverly Jenkins, the Royal Mail Letters Female team has won the Series Championship six consecutive times, and, of course, dominated annually at London.

But, in 2003, another runner of international stature – Chris Davies – joined a Royal Mail Letters Male team that already had won its division in 2001 and 2002. In his first effort on the Battersea Park course, Davies merely won by 49 seconds in a blazing 16:13. Two of his teammates broke 18 minutes, finishing in London 's top five. And, Royal Mail Letters' time of 1:09:30 effectively put the male title out of reach for other teams at London. In fact, it wasn't surprising that, with Davies winning the overall men's individual title at the 2003 Series Championship, Royal Mail Letters claimed Male team honors there, too.

“I've heard a lot about this event,” said Davies after his 2003 London victory, “and I know we have had a lot of success here. We're a bit of a dynasty I guess.”

“Don't associate me with Man-U,” he said. “They're not my team. But I guess we are that good.”

“In the past two years, we had been third in the all male category and knew we probably couldn't beat Royal Mail,” said Dunwoody. “We also thought we had a few strong female runners to match the men who had done well in previous years, so we thought it would be a good tactical move to go for the Mixed team (category). We may be stronger there, and Royal Mail may be a little less strong.”

The move worked to perfection as Ove Arup moved all the way to the top of podium, capturing the Mixed title at London in 1:21:34. That is the fourth fastest Mixed team time of the 2004 season, suggesting that if all goes well, Ove Arup could have a high podium finish at October's Championship as well.

Dunwoody led the way to the title with a 17:55 effort, followed by Pablo Lazo in 19:29. But, the team got a huge boost when Joanne Ronaldson finished as the fourth overall female in 19:49, only eight seconds out of second place. Jillian Hastings (24:21) rounded out the team, which won by nearly five minutes.

“I knew from last year's run to expect a good quality turnout and it was a fast pace right from the start,” said Ronaldson, who ran on high school track and cross country teams, but then gave up competing for several years to start her career and travel. About 18 months ago, she joined the Ranelagh Harriers running club to improve her fitness and, as her Corporate Challenge results indicated, she's already gone far beyond that.

“I have become hooked on competing again,” she said. “At London, I ran closely with one of the Royal Mail's ladies, Claire Martin, throughout the race, but she proved too strong for me to keep with over the final stretch. Eight seconds from second place does sound close, but I know on the day that eight seconds was a long way. Still, I was thrilled with my finishing position and ran the time that I had hoped for.”

A firm of consulting engineers, Ove Arup works in over 30 countries and has approximately 7,000 employees. It is a far-flung company, but close-knit in support of its runners.

“When we received confirmation of the result, I wrote a piece for our weekly internal electronic newsletter and there was a terrific response from that,” said Dunwoody. “Many people from all over the world sent emails and called to congratulate us as individuals and as a team. Senior members of staff were also very pleased and happy to see Arup do so well in such a high-profile event.”

For Ronaldson, the company offers an ideal environment in which to balance work and running.

“Fitting training into the working day is always a challenge, but with Regent's Park around the corner from our offices, good changing facilities, and a network of runners throughout the company to train with and have a chat with along the way, there is little excuse to skip a session,” she said.

And now that Ove Arup has finally qualified for the Series Championship, how does the team view its chances in New York ?

“The whole team is very excited and hoping we can rise to the occasion and improve on our times from London,” said Ronaldson. “There are some fast runners out there, so we will just have to see where that places us. Arup also has several teams competing in the Windsor Half-Marathon at the end of September, so we have all been training hard for that and hope it puts us in good shape for the New York final.”

Of course, Royal Mail Letters will be well represented at the Championship as well.

The Female team of Jenkins (19:04), Martin (19:49), Shirley Griffiths (21:07) and Trudi Thompson (22:08) has the No. 1 time this season with its sterling 1:22:05. They won the London title by 12 minutes and look primed to defend their 2003 title.

Davies ran a tad slower in 2004 than in 2003 – 16:40 - but still led the Royal Mail Letters Male team to an easy 4-minute victory over Barclays Capital in 1:10:05 at London, That time is the fourth fastest of the 2004 season and should put Royal Mail in the thick of a most interesting international battle with season-leading Transwerk of Johannesburg (1:07:01), ViV Fonds Shop GmbH of Frankfurt (1:09:22), Raytheon Company of Boston (1:11:03), and the Gurkha Contingent of Singapore.