Vt. Corporate Cup Challenge and State Agency Race

The purpose of this event is to promote fitness by encouraging employees to participate in exercise together. It is always held on a Thursday evening in May, in Montpelier and celebrates National Employee Health and Fitness Month.

This event began in 1980 as a 10K state agency race held during National Transportation Week. Individuals from different state agencies competed against each other to see what agency had the fastest runners. The event was begun by Robert Murphy who worked for the Agency of Transportation. It started with 23 participants and grew to 102 in 1985. In 1986 the race was changed to a 5K and there were 206 participants. George Plumb suggested to Bob that the race be opened up to include private businesses, other units of government and non-profit agencies and that it become a team type event. This was agreed to and the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports agreed to be the sponsor. George became the director of the race. Walking was added in 1989 and in that year there were 335 runners and 189 walkers. The race did well but after a few years it was very difficult to find the volunteers needed to run a growing race. At one point, the race was lacking so many volunteers that it almost ended, but employees from Vt. Mutual Insurance came along and said that we had to keep this going and worked very hard to recruit volunteers. The race took off from there and eventually a director was hired and George continued to serve as the chair of the committee overseeing the race. In 1996 committee member Mike Feulner was appointed to the Governor’s Council and became co-director with Leslie Davis. The race is now directed by Davis with a race committee of 16 dedicated individuals and over 200 volunteers. This event continues to grow each year and has now exceeded 4,000 participants. This is one of the largest such events in the state. The Net profits from the race go to support the many programs of the Vermont Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.