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The 2004 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship will be the most global and competitive in history. The best corporate runners from six countries on five continents will compete on Saturday, October 2 on New York's famous Park Avenue. This is one of a series of features about teams training for the Championship. You'll want to visit all the stops on the Road to the Championship to read about the participants who have found the perfect blend of workplace productivity and race course swiftness. |
4th STOP: NEW YORK CITY
Kelly Chin, winning in New York's Central Park in June, will anchor the Mixed team for JPMorgan Chase at the Oct. 2 Championship.
Championship course just yards
from her Park Avenue office
Kelly Chin receives her Tiffany champions award in June from Lewis Jones, Head of Corporate Philanthropy and Sponsorships for JPMorgan Chase, and Kathleen Paprocki of Tiffany & Co. |
New York, Sept. 1, 2004 – Considering that runners will be traveling from five continents to October's JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship, calling Kelly Chin's situation a home-court advantage hardly seems to be doing the term justice.
Not only does Chin work in New York City, her office is at 270 Park Avenue, site of the start and finish of the Championship. A computer support specialist at JPMorgan Chase, Chin's toughest pre-race chore on October 2 may be to remind herself that on that day she's not going to her office, but the starting line just outside the Bank's headquarters.
“It's definitely a little weird for me with the race right at 270 Park,” said Chin. “Showing up in sweats instead of business clothes is strange. Then going to the cafeteria after the race with a bunch of other sweaty runners and not having to show your credential, it is all a bit weird.”
Once the starting gun goes off, however, Chin will feel right “at home.” Though she is only 23, Chin has been running for more than a decade after her older sister coaxed her into trying the sport when Kelly was just 12. She ran on track and cross country teams throughout high school and at Carnegie-Mellon University. Now, two years into her career at JPMorgan Chase, Chin's running seems headed to a higher level.
On June 9, Chin knocked a half-minute off her previous best Corporate Challenge time and wound up winning the first of New York's two 2004 Central Park races. En route, Chin also pushed JPMorgan Chase's Mixed team to victory by a whopping margin of more than 12 minutes. Her time of 20:34 almost matched that off her male teammates on the Mixed team - Kevin Brewer ( 20:15 ) and Scott Fitzgerald ( 20:17 ). Kerin Maganzini ( 22:55 ) completed the team.
Team finished fourth in 2003 Championship
Together, their 1:24:01 is the eighth fastest Mixed time this year. And, it qualified them for another chance to take on the world's best corporate teams at the Championship, where they finished fourth in 2003, less than four minutes behind powerhouse Roche Diagnostics Group of Frankfurt.
“I was pretty excited to win,” said Chin of her June victory. “I was fourth last year and thought I might do well since I was in better shape than last year. Everyone kept telling me I was in first during the race. It was exciting.”
For Chin, the race was another case of “home-court advantage.” At the end of many work days, Chin changes into running gear, leaves her office at 270 Park Avenue, and makes her way to Central Park to train.
“It's the best place to train because it has so much variety,” she says.
A bonus is training partner Marie Wickham, who led another group of JPMorgan Chase runners to the Female team title at the June 9 Central Park race. Wickham (24:15), teamed with Kathleen Duggan (27:00), Marcie Cardaciotto (27:33) and Sarah Kausel (29:45). She also convinced Chin to join Moving Comfort's women's-only New York running team.
With a coach and more structure to her running, Chin has seen real improvement this year. That includes a 3 hour, 14 minute marathon run in 85-degree heat at Boston in April, and a best 37:20 10K run three days after June's JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, also in Central Park.
Breaking 3 hours in the marathon is a goal
“My previous marathon best had been 3:19,” said Chin. “Eventually I'd like to focus on the marathon and break three hours.”
As the fastest New York female runner this season, Chin is following in some big footsteps. Last year, Julia Stamps of Bear Stearns won the Female title in 19:37. The year before, Lauren Esposito of Morgan Stanley earned the title in 20:24. While it might be a stretch to predict Chin will make it three in a row, the quickly improving runner does allow that this is a good time of life and a good time to be working at JPMorgan Chase, which is in its 28th year of sponsoring the Corporate Challenge.
“I know a whole lot of colleagues who never run, but did the Corporate Challenge and had a good time,” said Chin. “It's important for me to see them getting out and getting some physical activity. Then, there's also all the talk about obesity in this country. So, maybe more than ever, what our company is doing with the Corporate Challenge is a good thing for a lot of people.”
And on October 2, the Bank will bring the world's best corporate runners to Chin's doorstep.
“I remember last year that before the Championship, we were pretty excited because only a few of us (from the Bank) were running the race,” Chin said. “I also remember the great runners from London 's winning female team and thinking they came all this way over to run. It was pretty special to be in a race with them and to run down Park Avenue and not worry about any cars because the whole race course was blocked off.”
Now that's something you don't see every day, even if you take a daily walk to work on the avenue.
Super Runners Shop is the third team winner from New York City #1, and the Male winners have a strong history in the Championship. In 2003, they missed the overall title by a scant nine seconds, finishing in 1:09:43 behind Royal Mail Letters of London. Super Runners Shop seems poised to make another run at the title. Their winning Central Park effort was 1:13:29, just outside of the top 10 rankings for the year in the very competitive Male division.
Meanwhile, team champions from New York City #2, held June 23 in Central Park, include the Mixed team winning Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2003, the team placed 12 th overall at the Championship. Rounding out the team champions at New York #2 were the Board of Education (Female) and Morgan Stanley / Dean Witter (Male).
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