Almost twice around the globe or a little less than 2,000 marathon distances: that’s the total distance that 450 participants from ten Salzburg companies took under their running shoes in this year’s Charity Challenge in three months.

The idea of the “running competition for a good cause” came from Wolfgang Zimmel, founder of WerdePate.com and employee at Commend International, the communications specialist in Liefering. In 2018, Commend and SKIDATA expanded their original running partnership into a competition. The rules are simple: two companies each take on the mutual challenge of covering most of the kilometres of total distance running, hiking or walking with a team of employees “over the course” of three months. Every kilometre completed – measured, documented and evaluated using sports watches and a web portal – is sponsored by the respective company with 20 cents for charitable purposes. The motto of the event also stems from this competitive idea: “Against one another for one another”. The competition spurs on, but does not leave the sporting fairness behind: due to the different sized teams, the mileage is weighted for the final evaluation, i.e. H. broken down into the mileage per participant. The size of the company does not matter, so that the event is open to every team, whether from the private sector or from the public sector.

In the meantime, the brilliant idea has caught more and more running enthusiasts on fire: in 2018 it was only “Commend versus SKIDATA”, but in 2019 there were already six companies with 250 participants who covered more than 44,000 km for a good cause – and in 2020 there were already ten companies with more than 450 participants!

The success of this year’s competitions shattered all previous records. The participants from the companies Commend, COPA-DATA, SKIDATA, Quehenberger Logistics, nic.at, movea marketing, Salzburg Research, Findologic, Digital Elektronik and Stepa Farmkran were able to almost double the previous record in the period from June 15 to September 15: This time the exact final balance shows an impressive 78,680.40 km.

There was tension right up to the end, because the participants from the different companies fought exciting duels. Nic.at achieved the best mileage of all participating companies with a remarkable 294.17 km per team member.

“As always, the best experience at the finish was not just the adrenaline rush on the final spurt against our strong challengers from COPA-DATA, but above all the charity contribution we made for the children of the heart in Austria”, said Wolfgang Zimmel. This time it is € 15,736.08, which will be handed over to Michaela Altendorfer, head of Herzkinder Austria, on behalf of all participants over the next few days. “The vigor and enthusiasm of the participants inspires me again and again, even if this time, unfortunately, the final highlight of the Salzburg Business Run fell victim to the Corona measures at short notice”, sums up Michael Mayrhofer, head of the Charity Challenge. “That in no way diminishes the success. Promoting community and health in the fresh air and being able to help suffering children in the process: what more could you want?”

Further information: www.charity-challenge.at