Corporate Cup Big Business As Spots Filling Up 208 Teams Have Signed Up Already For The 250 Positions

It’s a run within Bloomsday, and hundreds of people are already racing just to get into it.

Corporate Cup, which opened its registration last week, is filling up with companies fielding teams. As of Thursday, 208 teams had signed up. The cup accepts the first 250 teams that register.

“People are pretty much following directions, thank goodness,” said Mark Starr, Corporate Cup committee chairman. “A couple of people jumped the gun and sent stuff in without the proper registration forms. They didn’t send the right amount of money, they sent it to the wrong P.O. box.”

Each team in the Corporate Cup must pay a $200 entry fee. The teams are limited to five members, all of whom must be employed by the company a minimum of 30 hours per week since the beginning of the year. Companies can enter more than one team for the May 7 race.

To score the teams, each Corporate Cup runner’s time for Bloomsday will be divided into the winning time in the runner’s age category, excluding elite runners. The three highest scores on each team will be added together to determine the team score.

The first team to register this year was Feltman, Gebhart, Eymann and Jones, a law firm. They didn’t win for creativity, though - their team name is the same as their firm name.

Other teams were more inventive. There’s Zany Zak’s team from Zak Designs. Goldilocks and the Four Bears from Bayer Corp. The Wheelabrator Slugs from Wheelabrator Environmental Systems. The Clarifiers from the state Department of Ecology. The Househunters from Tomlinson Realtors. And the Sinkalip QwQwudtaxen from the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Last year the Corporate Cup turned away about 100 teams that waited too long to register. Starr expects the Corporate Cup will fill up in the next couple of days.

For more information, call the Bloomsday office at 838-1579.

Others already have. Many want to know what color the Corporate Cup singlets will be this year. Like the T-shirt design, that information is confidential.

“They want to be color-coordinated,” Starr said. “I guess it makes sense. It gets sort of funny.”