Presented by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

One of Chicago’s truly iconic annual events has hit a significant milestone.

The 2023 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge will celebrate its 40th running when it takes off from the Columbus Drive starting line on Thursday, May 18 at 6:50 p.m. The 3.5-mile team run/walk has been a staple for the Chicago business community since its debut in 1982.

Now, as it was then, the Corporate Challenge will be staged at beautiful Grant Park, with the competition preceding post-race hospitality at hundreds of company tents dotted throughout the historic green space.

Registration is open now and will remain so through Friday, April 28. The entry fee is $59 per person, and each entrant must join a company team, with a minimum of four entrants per team, with no maximum.

Hospitality reservations are also available and historically more than 75-percent of all participating companies reserve space within Grant Park, making it the biggest after-work party of the year for the Chicagoland business community.

For companies planning to participate, note that the May 18 race date in 2023 is a bit earlier than usual. The 2022 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge in Grant Park was on June 9, and attracted 9,555 entrants from 279 companies.

This year’s Corporate Challenge on May 18 is preparing to welcome a field of participants more like before the sensible two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was in record-breaking mode in 2019, with a staggering 28,309 runners and walkers from 687 Chicagoland businesses. Chicago, in fact, had registered more than 20,000 entrants each year from 2011 through 2019, each year topping the charts as the largest single-night Corporate Challenge held in the United States.

And the foundation is in place for a big turnout in 2023. The 10 largest companies in terms of entries in 2022 were CDW (242 entrants), United Airlines (183), Molex (154), Brookfield Properties (153), CME Group (153), Chicago Citadel (150), Wintrust Financial (140), University of Chicago (137), Fresenius (130), and PwC (128).

The fastest of the participating companies in 2022 were Accenture, RSM Chicago, and Exelon, who were the first-place teams in the men’s, women’s and mixed divisions, respectively. The individual men’s and women’s champions were Brett Davidson from RSM Chicago, who covered the 3.5 miles in 17:06, and Rachel Pottle of Thompson Flanagan/NFP, with an official time of 21:18. Entrants do not need to be swift, however, to enter the Corporate Challenge. Racers, joggers and walkers of all abilities are welcome.

As part of the firm’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge provided entrants with more options to register the way they self-identify, including non-binary, for the first time in 2022. Results from all entrants are listed in the Series Leaderboard and once again in 2023 non-binary entrants will be eligible to score in their company’s mixed team results.

Chicago is part of the 2023 J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series, which is scheduled to visit 15 cities in eight countries on six continents. This will be the 47th consecutive year of operation for the Series dating back to 1977, with 45 years of in-person racing and two years of Virtual participation during COVID.