15th STOP: SAN FRANCISCO

Ben Turman, blue shirt in left rear of photo, hangs in with a fast-moving lead pack of winner David Cullum (968), runner-up Chris Lundstrum (3337) and third-place finisher Konrad Knutsen (1899) to lead Autodesk to the Male team title at San Francisco.

Autodesk emerges as Male champ
in wide-open San Francisco event

San Francisco, CA (Sept. 29, 2004) – For years, it had been almost automatic that organizers of the San Francisco JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge would write in Merrill Lynch as the Male team champion. With 2002 Championship winner David Cullum leading the way, Merrill Lynch was one formidable team.

However, 2004 was a year of change.

San Francisco still featured its strikingly beautiful Crissy Field course in the shadows of the Golden Gate Bridge. But this year, the race showed greater growth than any other established event on the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge circuit. And, Merrill Lynch's team changed, too.

“We're missing some strong runners who have helped us in the past,” said Cullum, before winning the event again in 16:59. “We're just not as strong.”

In fact, so changed was the makeup of Merrill Lynch's team that after the race, it was decided its best shot at returning to the October 2 Championship in New York was in the Mixed Division. After casting its fate in that direction, Merrill Lynch finished a tight third in the Mixed Division behind the East Bay Municipal Utility District and Google.

The Male Division wound up being a free-for-all, with 12 teams within 5 minutes. In the end, Autodesk emerged as the champion, winning by 11 seconds over SAP.

“Truthfully, we didn't think we could win, but we thought we could move maybe into the top three after being in the top five last year,” said company captain Mark Dolan. “After the race, while we felt pretty good about how we ran, we still were thinking maybe third or possibly second with some luck.”

With the Palace of Fine Arts behind him, Eric Hall of Autodesk runs through Crissy Field course.

Like most successful teams headed to the Championship, Autodesk has the support of senior management. For example, the company has a fitness center on location at its San Rafael headquarters in Marin County and many of its employees are multi-sport athletes. In this case, however, the company went a step further than most. A member of its senior management team was actually fast enough to participate on the winning team.

“As mentioned, we did come in fifth last year, so we sort of had an idea who our top runners were going to be,” said Dolan. “However, one of our runners from last year couldn't make it because of a wedding in France. So, a couple of weeks before the race, I recruited Al Castino to run.”

Castino is a story unto himself.

A 52-year-old athlete with a zest for physical challenges, he took up triathlons and duathlons (running and biking) a few years ago. At the National Duathlon Championships in Georgia this summer, Castino earned a top five age-group finish. He is also a top senior runner for the strong Tamalpa running club.

Oh, and in the last two years as Chief Financial Officer for Autodesk, he helped engineer a financial turnaround for the software company that saw its stock price climb from $11 to $48. Nice guy to have around.

“I knew Al was serious about working out and competing,” said Dolan, “but I didn't realize how good he actually was until we searched the web for his duathlon results and saw his top five finish at nationals.”

It turns out, he was good enough to help lift the team to its narrow victory.

Autodesk, which produces digital design and architectural software such as Autocad, was led by Ben Turman, a former 4:01 miler at Cal Berkeley who has been with the company for three years. Turman hung with Cullum, runnerup Chris Lundstrom of Sports Basement, and third-place finisher Konrad Knutsen of BT Commercial Real Estate in a tight pack through two miles, before winding up in fourth overall in 17:35.

Dolan, a former triathlete and new dad – the two are connected, he says - was next in 20:24. Castino followed in a solid 21:08, with Martin Barthmaier, a soccer player who joins Autodesk's lunchtime training runs from time to time, rounding out the team in 22:45.

“We think we can take another minute and a half to two minutes off our time,” said Dolan of Autodesk's winning 1:21:51. “But, seeing some of the international team times, we have no fantasy of placing. We are just really excited about winning San Francisco and getting to participate in New York.”

The team also is already looking ahead to 2005.

“We had 20 people sign up, but on race day sixteen showed up,” said Dolan. “This was mostly through word of mouth among the lunchtime running community at Autodesk. We will be widening the search at the company for runners next year.”

NOTES: Bernstein Investment Management won the Female title. Suzanne Payne (24:16), Linda Ohlsson (25:12), Karen Park (26:33) and Alison Bowe (27:20) combined to win in 1:41:21.