The JP Morgan corporate challenge is a venerable tradition in New York where thousands and thousands of New York's finest pencil pushers and hourly-billers come together to demonstrate their meager athletic abilities by running through Central Park. The race is a grueling at a distance of 5k. It is also conveniently held in July when the temperatures promise to be either excruciatingly hot or pouring rain- but coincides with the time when summer associates are around to provide their naive un-jaded merrymaking abilities. While the money that is raised for charity is honorable and its nice to see a bank being so community-minded... to be frank- the real draw of the race is two simple things 1) Free teeshirts and 2) Free beer. These two things are basically the American dream incarnate. The fine New York institutions that pay to send their runners to the event are then kind enough to set up tents and tables after the race to congratulate the victorious and out-of-shape corporate crusaders. These tables offer a place for the attorneys and bankers to come together and talk about how they used to be in much better shape before they sold their soul to the man whilst drinking prolific amounts of intoxicating hops based substances. All in all- its an excellent event- not one that should be missed.
With these joyous memories in mind, I eagerly signed up for the Singapore JPM corporate challenge. And also made my loving husband do the same. After a few microseconds of thought on the differences between NYC and Singapore- I quickly realized that while free teeshirts would no doubt abound (free goodie bags go over HUGE here)- the likelihood of free flowing keg beer was slim to none. This was almost enough to drop out of the race- but beer aside- I desperately needed the exercise (and a authorized reason to leave the office.) In a bold move- I eschewed offers to run with my current employer and decided to run with the fine folks from Shearman. This spared me the embarrassment of having to don the bright red sleeveless 1970's throwback tank top that served as the team's uniform. Eeek. Dave's team, however, declined to make sweet teeshirts leaving us to run anonymously. This was initially disappointing because everyone else had team running shirts proudly announcing their respective corporate affiliations - but later turned out to be fortuitous when a ravenous post-race Dave decided to steal food from one of the Bank's private reception tents and was promptly chastised by a large mean Asian man. Probably better to have not been wearing firm paraphernalia for that little mishap.
After big plans to "train" for the 5.6k jaunt around the F-1 track, the race day came upon us before a single sneaker had made contact with a treadmill in weeks (OK- months). And although we knew that no frosty brew awaited us at the finish line- it was still an awesome time. Almost all of the major banks and law firms are located down town in Raffles Place- which meant that the before the race the whole plaza was swarming with corporate runners in their uniforms walking over to the starting line. It was quite the sight to see- good people watching was had. We eventually made it to the starting area- but with over 11,000 runners we ended up a good 10 minutes away from the actual starting line. No worries for us as our athletic goals extended only to not passing out or dry-heaving on the side of the road in Singapore's balmy tropical weather. On this front we were hugely successful. After a bit of walking smashed in body-to-body conditions on the narrow path, we saw some fissures in the wall of humanity and felt inclined to run for a bit. This is partially due to our desperate need for physical activity and also because the use of deodorant is not wide spread in Singapore which doesn't go well with exercise in 100 degree weather.
We ran. Then we walked. We took in the sights. Admired the dedication of those individuals actually choosing to run. Pointed and laughed a bit. And eventually ran some more. I will not be sharing our finishing time as it was dramatically and negatively influenced by the tight crowds and restricted running ability (and *maybe* our lack of "training" and by training I mean, any physical activity whatsoever) Lets just say some people finish half-marathons in the time it took us to walk-run 5.6k. But we crossed the finish line victoriously in our non-branded outfits and queued up to get our goody bags and free JPM teeshirts. I am likely to be accused of being culturally insensitive and making broad generalizations with the following commentary- so I apologize in advance--- Singaporeans LOVE free goodies. Love them, cannot get enough of them, cannot take just one. Raffles Place is the prime spot to hand out random things and do promotions for an untold variety of items. In any given week I could come home with 10 give-aways of completely random junk. But, what prohibits me from getting any goodybags (because I too, love free things) is that monster queue that forms at the first hint of a give-away. I have seen over 50 people line up in the unbearable mid-day sun for the chance to take home a thrilling Standard Chartered bank rubrics cube. And they will stand in line multiple times to get multiple bags. There was an unidentifiable loot give away going on in front of the subway this week- which I almost completely ignored. When I got on the MRT, everyone else on the train had at least 3 or 4 bags each. The race turned out to be no different- as we triumphantly excited the race area, free bag and teeshirt in hand- we noticed that practically everyone around us was proudly sporting multiple give-away canvas bags. Now, this bag was admittedly nicer than the normal junk that is tossed around- but the contents included a re-usable grocery bag, a coupon and a water battle. Who really needs multiple of those items? Ah- the joy of cultural differences.
All told- we had a really fun time at the race. Its always sort of nice to see a bunch of uptight overworked corporate drones let loose and do something fun. It may have even inspired me to start running again- we shall see.
After word:
I realize that this post is exceptionally random, even by my standards, but it is 3am, I am choosing to avoid pending work and too excited about our crate coming tomorrow to really sleep. So please forgive the meandering ramblings of a tired ex-pat. I am sure the codeine cough syrup I just chugged also contributed.
Love to friends and family- miss you guys a lot.
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