On Saturday, June 17 I got to run in a cool race that pits Detroit’s Big Three automotive companies (GM, Ford, and Stellantis/Chrysler) against each other. The Corporate Cup Relays feature 5K and 10K road races in the morning followed by track and field events in the afternoon.

I have participated in the road races a couple times in the past as part of GM’s Chevy Running Club. The last time I ran for them was in 2018 when the races took place around Belle Isle in Detroit. I began to work for Stellantis (then known as FCA, previously known as Chrysler) in 2020 but the event did not take place for a couple years because of COVID. When it returned in 2022, I was very reluctant to sign up. I had been told that I may be laid off sometime during the year so I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea. I only signed up because I wanted to support Ron, the leader of the running club. The event was supposed to take place in the city of Berkley which changed its mind about allowing the road races a week beforehand, so I was off the hook anyway.

I was indeed laid off just before Christmas in 2022 but made my way back to Stellantis a couple months later in a totally different role as a contractor. That meant I was still eligible to participate this year. However, with my first half iron race six days prior to the event, I was wary about committing. Ron told me that I could sign up and if I hadn’t recovered enough I didn’t have to show up. I felt surprisingly okay when I ran a couple times before race day so I decided to go for it.

I developed a whole new level of motivation the day before the race when I received official word that I will get my old job back in July. I’ll be a Stellantis employee again, and most importantly, I’ll return to the work I love most as a photographer. That wonderful news lit an extra spark for me and made me even more excited to run as a part of the team.

It was a beautiful morning in the 60s when I arrived at Anderson Middle School in Berkley. It was nice to catch up with some of the people I know from the Chevy Running Club as well as people from my current team. I received a Stellantis tank top when I checked in.

As I jogged around the school’s track to warm up, I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend Marty. We worked together at GM and I had checked in with him the day before the race when I realized I’d be running within a couple blocks of his house. It was so great that he came out and I enjoyed catching up with him for a bit before the race. 

I had two races on my schedule – the 10K followed by the 5K. I’ve doubled up on those distances at a number of races when the option has been available. I’m always pushing myself and if I know I can do more, I feel like I should. Never mind the fact that I haven’t been doing any kind of speed work and didn’t know if my persistent hamstring issue would flare up if I ran too fast. I questioned if I might be capable of running times within a minute of my PRs. I told myself that even if I may not be at my fastest, my “okay” still might be good enough to help the team.

The 10K started at 7:45 and as we lined up on the track, most of us mumbled that we weren’t going to be fast enough to move up to the front. Then half of those people took off and certainly DID belong up at the front!

We started with about 300 meters around the track and I felt so rusty that I wished I was running a 400 rather than a 10K! I wasn’t so sure a speedy pace was going to work for me. We headed out to the neighborhood roads in Berkley with 80-some participants. I ended up running 7:36 for the first mile. That was faster than anything I’d run in a while and I didn’t know if I could sustain it for five more miles.

It was fun to see that Marty had gone out on the course to cheer for me. He made me laugh when he said there were a couple women ahead of me but they didn’t look very fast. He was also there when I came through on the way back and told me that the women were still there, but he thought they might be getting tired. I felt really lucky to have him there supporting me and making me laugh.

Thankfully the streets of Berkley are as flat as can be and it was very quiet on a Saturday morning. I glanced at my pace a little bit at the beginning but not much beyond that and just kept pushing. I tried to convince myself that I have endurance on my side and I’m good for running longer distances. Hopefully that would help pull me through. As I got down to the last couple miles I gave it all that I had. Marty was there waiting at the finish as I came in at 46:22.

When I look at how my splits broke down it shocks me that I pulled that off. Marty said two women had finished ahead of me and they were both Stellantis runners. Fortunately we were all in different age groups which meant each of us scored age group wins. Scoring is based on how we place in our age groups so I was excited that I was able to contribute!

As I recovered, Marty came over to me and I realized his sister Maureen was with him! How cool to have their support – it meant a lot to me and it was great to see both of them.

I had 20-30 minutes before I’d have to run again and spent most of that time catching up with people I knew. The crowd grew for the 5K which is always larger than the 10K. Walkers also join the race five minutes after the runners start. 123 runners participated and 55 walkers. For a corporate-only event, it was a pretty good crowd. A few runners from Rocket Mortgage also joined the event. There are usually a bunch of other companies who participate in other divisions but I think Rocket was the only company outside of the Big Three this year. 

People really flew past me at the start of the 5K and I was a little iffy about my hamstring. I was lucky that it didn’t give me any issues beyond the start of both races. I know a 5K is pretty much an all-out, torturous effort and I’d just have to hang on. I’m pretty surprised that I pulled off a first mile of 7:12 and sped up a little more after that. It was an out and back route so it was fun to see the faster people on their way back in and root for some of my teammates. 

I had kept myself positive during the 10K by saying that endurance would help pull me through, and during the 5K I remembered that I’ve often found it effective to race my way into shape during the summer. I don’t do speed workouts enough on my own and they usually intimidate me – especially during hot summer afternoons. Somehow the race environment seems to be more effective for me.

While I usually just focus on running what I’m capable of, I had a little more of a competitive spirit during this race. I had to try to score points for my team! I didn’t know who was in my age group but pushed myself to catch one of the Ford runners. When we finished on the track, one of the GM women had a powerful kick that I couldn’t even attempt to match. Maybe she was younger than me so it wouldn’t matter anyway. 

I placed as the fourth overall woman and second in my age group. I was still able to contribute to my team with my score. I finished in 22:27.

I hung out for a bit chatting with teammates and we took a big team photo before I took off. 

Ron shared the results with us on Monday and our team tied with GM but they won the tiebreaker. So close! It was fun to be a part of the event and fun to see that I found some speed I didn’t think I had. I actually did end up within a minute of my PRs like I had hoped I might. Going that fast is usually torture, but somehow I didn’t totally hate it while running either of these races. It might motivate me to do some more shorter races this summer to keep working on my speed.

– Janet
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