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J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge returns after 3-year hiatus

The 30th running of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge will be held Jun 14, 2022 in Rochester.
JPMorgan Chase
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JPMorgan Chase
The 30th running of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge will be held June 14 in Rochester.

UPDATE: The individual winners in Tuesday night’s event were Scott Loforte, representing Popli Design Group, with a time of 17:16 in the men’s division, and Trisha Byler, representing International Flavor & Fragrances, with a time of 20:25 in the women’s division.

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One of downtown Rochester’s most popular events is back in the city Tuesday evening. It’s the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Corporate challenge road race.

This event has always been more about the camaraderie between coworkers, and the mixing of people from different companies, than it has about who has the fastest times.

And while it has brought thousands of workers downtown every spring, that was a problem with the COVID-19 pandemic, and like a lot of events, it couldn’t be held the last two years.

But the Challenge is back on Tuesday, albeit with a smaller crowd.

Casey Fitzgerald, an organizer for the event who is also Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking, said that this year’s event will have just under 3,000 participants compared to nearly 7,800 the last time the event was held in 2019.

“A lot of it is driven just from the workplace, looking a little bit different than it did pre-pandemic with remote workers, and just offices not being as robust as they once were,” said Fitzgerald. “But again, it’s the excitement, the camaraderie, starting to bring folks back together.”

Organizers of the corporate challenge also intentionally wanted to keep the number of runners and walkers down, to ensure a safe environment.

But Fitzgerald does expect numbers to grow in upcoming years.

The race starts Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at Frontier Field, and the 3.5 mile course goes through parts of the downtown area including along a portion of the Inner loop before winding up back at Frontier.

This year, the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation will make a donation as part of the event to Flower City Habitat for Humanity.

You can get more information about the eventhere.

There are some street closures as well:

Beginning at 5 p.m., the following streets will be closed:

• Morrie Silver Way from Oak Street to State Street

• N. Plymouth Avenue from Allen Street to Brown Street

At 6:30 p.m., the following streets will be closed:

• State Street from Brown Street to W. Main Street

• N. Fitzhugh Street from Allen Street to W. Main Street

• Inner Loop from N. Plymouth Avenue to W. Main Street

• Scio Street from Lyndhurst Street to E. Main Street

• University Avenue from E. Main Street to Windsor Street

• Delevan Street from Gibbs Street to Scio Street

• N. Plymouth Avenue northbound from Main Street to Brown Street

All streets are expected to reopen at approximately 9 p.m.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.