Official results posted


Mike Ballases, Chairman of JPMorgan Chase Houston Region, greets Victor Stewart, a winner of more than 300 medals for Special Olympics Texas, one of the event's beneficiaries. (Bruce Bennett photos)

Houston joins Series circuit
with a record-breaking run
Official results | Photo Gallery

Houston's record field starts under the lights.

HOUSTON, October 25, 2004 – There may be two full months left in calendar year 2004 but the 2005 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge is already in record-breaking mode.

The first event of the 29th season of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge began tonight with our newest event. Houston made its debut in the Corporate Challenge and, in true Texas fashion, came through in a big way. A total of 4,034 participants from 167 companies took part, easily establishing a U.S. record for entrants in a first-year event.

“Every time we contacted a company about this event,” said Mike Ballases, Chairman of the Houston Region for JPMorgan Chase, “we received a positive response. It's like Houston has been waiting for this.”

Houston becomes the 16th city in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series and now holds two other distinctions: October 25 was the earliest calendar start for a Series year, and the 7:30 p.m. race start created the first time an entire Corporate Challenge event was held after dark.

“That was a great experience,” said Michael Olague, the men's overall winner from RunSport. “I've never run a race at night before….it gave the city a unique feel.”

Indeed, Houston 's 3.5-mile course was framed to the west by downtown's towering skyscrapers and to the east by a magnificent full moon. “It is quite a sight,” said Drew Alexander of Weingarten Realty. “This is definitely the place to be in Houston tonight.”

Evening start provided some relief after a hot day

The evening start also provided cool relief from a day where Houstonians endured unseasonable heat and humidity, with the mercury peaking near 90. A persistent breeze dropped the temperatures into the 70s by race time, though the humidity made a post-race repast of bananas and sports drinks a necessity.

In their element at the front of the pack were the initial men's and women's winners. Olague, an assistant manager at RunSport, was a two-time NCAA cross country nationals participant while at the University of Houston. Now 24 and two years removed from his collegiate days, he is segueing into a career that blends full-time work and road racing. He bested second-place Vaughn Gibbs of Toshiba International by 35 seconds.

On the post-race awards stage, Olague had a homecoming of sorts when he was presented his first-place Tiffany Award by the coach who recruited him to UH, former Olympic gold medalist Leroy Burrell.

“That was a nice surprise, getting the award from (Burrell),” said Olague. “I owe a lot to him.”

Female champion relishes experience of breaking the tape

Maureen Sweeney also was a standout high school and collegiate runner, winning the Texas Relays in the 5,000 meter run while a senior at the University of Texas. Now an exercise specialist in the wellness center at Texas Children's Hospital, Sweeney was excited when she heard about the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 's debut in Houston.

“A friend e-mailed me, and I thought it sounded like a fantastic event,” she said.

But Sweeney got even more of a thrill when she finished first in the women's division in 21:43. She outraced Heide Mairs of Exxon Mobil to the finish by 27 seconds and exploded through the finish line tape, breaking it out of the hands of Burrell and JPMorgan Chase's David Mendez.

A new experience for Maureen Sweeney - breaking the tape.

“I was excited,” Sweeney laughed. “I have never broken through a finish line tape before. Ever. They don't have finish line tapes in high school, where I won a lot of races. Breaking a tape, hey, that's a great feeling.”

Vicki Danielson (22:44) of Amerada Hess, Katrina Price (22:54) of Shell Oil and her teammate Esme Fantozzi (23:10) rounded out the women's Top Five.

Following Olague and Gibbs as the fastest men were Carlos Rivas Jr. (18:40) of RunSport, Jeremy Willson (18:49) of Shell Oil and RunSport's Mike Gibson (18:50).

“We ran in the event because JPMorgan Chase is our bank, they invited us, and hey, we sell running shoes for a living,” said Olague. “We had no idea what a first-class event this is, and that our team now has a chance to make it to New York (for the October, 2005 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Championship).”

Craig Hurlbert of Turbine Air Systems (28:14) and Elaine Agather of JPMorgan Chase in Dallas (35:50) were the respective men's and women's winners of the Most Senior Executive category.

Locke, Liddell & Sapp – which also fields a strong team at the Dallas JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in April – had the largest number of participants in this event, 191. In general, race organizers were blown away by the enthusiasm generated for this debut. Original projections for participation were around 2,500 runners from 100 companies. After all, no U.S. event in the previous 28 years of the Corporate Challenge had ever surpassed 2,500 runners in its first year.

Beneficiaries benefit from unexpectedly large crowd

The large crowd meant an increased donation to the two primary beneficiaries – Special Olympics Texas and the YMCA of Greater Houston. Special Olympics was represented on the award stage by Victor Stewart, a Houston-area athlete who has won over 300 Special Olympics medals in volleyball, bowling, basketball, athletics and power lifting.

The Houston event was originally scheduled for Tuesday, October 26. But JPMorgan Chase proactively moved the event up to Monday to avoid a potential conflict with a Houston Astros World Series game, which would have been played on that day at Minute Maid Park, a couple of long Jeff Bagwell fly-balls from the starting line.

“It would have been the best pep rally ever if the Astros had made the Series,” said JPMorgan Chase's Ballases, noting Houston came up just one game short of making it to its first Fall Classic. “But the Astros entered a team of runners and they had a fantastic year.”

The 29th season of the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge continues in two weeks, with the fifth annual Corporate Challenge in Sydney, Australia.