An event that began in 1977 amidst a city-wide emergency is not easily deterred by adversity.

The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge, which debuted on July 13, 1977, the same night as the New York City Blackout, returns for its 43^rd  running on Wednesday, June 1 and Thursday, June 2. The location remains the same, Central Park, and so does the commitment to provide the business community with a night of friendly competition and camaraderie.

The Corporate Challenge’s flagship event signals a healthy return for the entire global Series. Appropriate safety precautions due to the COVID-19 pandemic limited the Corporate Challenge to virtual participation in 2020 and 2021 across all its locations. The last in-person Corporate Challenge prior to 2022 was November 14, 2019, in Shanghai.

But all participation this year will be in person and participants can expect a similar experience to earlier Corporate Challenges, with company hospitality available within Central Park. The emphasis will be on safety, with the Corporate Challenge following local health guidelines to deliver peace of mind and a world-class road racing experience.

There will be a historic element as well. For the first time at a J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge, participants in New York may register as non-binary and be eligible for scoring in the mixed team division. Mixed teams shall include no more than two participants registering under the same gender – for example, two female and two non-binary teammates, or one male, one non-binary and two females.

The last time participants gathered in Central Park for the Corporate Challenge was on May 30–31, 2018. (The 2019 races were cancelled due to dangerous weather). A capacity crowd of 30,000 participants from 665 companies covered the traditional 3.5-mile racecourse those two nights. American Express (997 participants), Goldman Sachs (750) and Morgan Stanley (661) were the largest businesses assembled.

Event owner and operator JPMorgan Chase brought a total of 2,187 of its metropolitan employees to the starting line in 2018, underscoring the commitment and passion the firm has had for the event ever since it drew up plans for that very first Corporate Challenge in 1977.

That very first plan had Central Park in its focus, and the relationship has worked out beautifully through the years. The beneficiary for the 2022 Corporate Challenge is once again the Central Park Conservancy, the manager of Central Park. JPMorgan Chase will celebrate the Corporate Challenge through a donation that supports the Conservancy’s mission to restore, manage and enhance Central Park.

When companies and their employees last got together in Central Park in 2018, the fastest among them was Megan Bishop, Alexandra Cadicamo, Matthew Forys, and John Bleday.

Bishop, representing the Hospital for Special Surgery and Cadicamo, running for The Boston Consulting Group, were the women’s individual winners over the two nights, breaking the tape in 20:16 (5:47 pace) and 19:11 (5:29) respectively.

Forys proved to be a champion representative for the New York Road Runners team, earning the men’s title on the first night with a time of 17:15 (4:55 pace). The next night, Bleday, wearing a bib for his employer PwC, ran the exact same time for his victory.

When the masses safely come together on June 1–2 this year, they can be thankful to the 200 sneaker-wearing pioneers who entered the first Corporate Challenge in 1977. The group ran two laps of Central Park’s southern loop that night, exactly 3.5 miles. They had no idea they were making history with every step.

If you’ve been collecting Corporate Challenge bib numbers through the years, you are familiar with this history. JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor firms have owned and operated the Corporate Challenge since 1977. The event was branded the Manufacturers Hanover Corporate Challenge from 1977–1991, the Chemical Bank Corporate Challenge 1992–1995, the Chase Corporate Challenge 1996–2000, the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2001–2010, and now the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge since 2011.

The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series is deep in the planning stages of hosting events in 15 locations in eight countries in 2022. The Series is enjoying expansion this year, with new events scheduled to be held later in the year in Buenos Aires, Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia. Buenos Aires will mark the Corporate Challenge’s first visit to South America, giving the Series a presence on all six inhabited continents.

The Series hosted 251,299 participants from 7,581 companies in the last full year of racing in 2019. The 2020 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Virtual Event was the largest remote running event in the world.