Runners from CM Group
Sydney’s Centennial Park hosted 8,335 runners from 341 companies for JP Morgan’s Corporate Challenge, a charity run to bring employees together and support the Indigenous Marathon Foundation.
CM Group sent a team of 29 participants to take on the 5.6km race course, through the rain, with a record number of runners for the Sydney event despite the wet.
Team captain Tomas van der Meer says the Challenge brings together staff across the group, from CM+, Context and Street Furniture Australia.
He says, “At Centennial Park we went for the group photo, pinned our numbers and lined up for the start. Though it was raining we entertained ourselves with a breakdance and photographs. The sleeves were rolled up and at 6:40pm we were off.
“Jason from Context flew over the course and all of the others followed soon after with solid times across all companies supporting the Indigenous Marathon Project.
“I want to thank all the participants for being awesome. Wear your shirts proudly and hopefully we will catch up again soon.”
Fastest to the flagged finish was Macquarie Group’s Jeffrey Hunt, with a time of 16:38. The female winner, Lucy Starrat, representing Channel 7 and defending her title from 2014, broke the tape with a time of 19:08.
Jason Packenham, senior landscape architect with Context, clocked the first CM Group finish with a time of 24:57.
He says, “It was good to get the group together away from the office and while the rain was frustrating it made for good running weather.
“This was my first time taking part in the event. I was surprised by the number of runners. I hadn’t trained so I was pretty sore for a few days afterwards.”
For the second consecutive year JP Morgan made a donation on behalf of participants to the Indigenous Marathon Foundation, which uses marathon running to demonstrate the incredible capacity Indigenous Australian men and women have to achieve.
The Foundation was founded by running legend Rob de Castella, who recently returned to Australia from the US where he brought a team of ten Indigenous athletes to compete in the New York City Marathon.
The Challenge is an annual global event, with races from March to November in 14 cities. In 2014 some 267,960 runners and walkers from 8,071 companies helped to raise more than $700,000 to not-for-profit organisations in each city.
