For those of you that work in the insurance or banking industry, you probably would have heard of the JP Morgan Corporate Run. Every year the multinational finance company host the Corporate Challenge Run as a ‘global celebration of corporate teamwork, camaraderie and community’.

Last year 255,270 entrants from 7,677 companies took part in seven countries on five continents. After competing three times before, this year I decided to give it another go.

This years race was held last week in London’s Battersea Park, on one of the hottest days of the year. I signed up to run the race at the beginning of the year, along with a number of other employees from my company. I’ve never really been a big fan of running so around April time I started training with weekly running clubs and spin classes.

One thing in the past that has held me back with running was smoking. After smoking for seven years, I gave up back in January and it’s made all the difference.

I would be lying if I said I trained religiously, but a few runs before really helped me get in the zone.

As the day arrived, we got changed at work and headed straight across town. We shared the train with many commuters sporting their gymwear rather than the normal suit and trousers combo. We then walked to the park from the station which was a good warm up before the race.

When signing up for the race you inform the organisers of your fitness ability. This allows them to assign  you to a race colour-  blue is elite followed by red, green and yellow,  this year I was red.

The distance of the race is 5.6km and my official time was 28.30. I was really pleased with my time even though the amount of people racing all at once does hinder your ability to run at your maximum speed in certain areas of the course.

After the race I collected my winners t shirt and banana then met up with my co-workers to congratulate them.

Next year…

• Although giving up smoking and the small bit of training I did beforehand really helped, next year I want to do more outdoor running before the big day.
• Invest in an iPhone holder. All amateur runners will know the pain of running whilst holiday your phone.
• Run with a waterbottle. When the race falls on the hottest day of the year, I was silly not to run with a waterbottle, even though they have water stations around the course.
• Time? Next year, I want to smash my results and finish in under 25 minutes.

Have you taken part in the JP Morgan Corporate Run before?