At YKK we believe in supporting our customers by participating in events that they offer to the public. On November 18 and 19, 2017, Rachel Schildkraut and Sunny Choy from YKK’s San Francisco Global Marketing office and Tucker Asano from YKK’s New York Global Marketing office ran in The North Face Endurance Challenge in San Francisco. Launched in 2007, The North Face Endurance Challenge is a championship trail running series, which takes place in different cities across the U.S. and in other countries, and which pushes runners to their personal limits of endurance while engaging them with beautiful scenery.
The following is Schildkraut’s account of her experience along with Choy’s and Asano’s in running in this ultra-trail running event.
Every year, The North Face hosts an annual trail running race series called The North Face Endurance Challenge Series in different locations across the country. The first time I ran in one of their race series, I did the 10K trail run in Wisconsin in 2011, which was actually one day after my first interview with YKK and before I was hired. Six years later, I am now the account manager supporting The North Face, and they are one of my top accounts. So it was really cool to be able to participate again and in a new city this time.
The 2017 San Francisco North Face Endurance Challenge was held during the weekend of November 18th and 19th. Tucker Asano was also planning to visit our office that week, so he decided to participate along with Sunny Choy and me.
YKK has a great relationship with The North Face; Tucker and Sunny usually reach out to the trim materials manager for The North Face during each Outdoor Retailer Show and ask him to join them for a run in the mornings of the show.
I have just started running again after taking some time off, so I haven’t joined them yet, but I hope to run with them during the next OR Show.
Tucker ran the 50 mile race, and I think it took him about 11 hours to complete. He is crazy! But from what I heard, it was a very beautiful and scenic course, which included running across the Golden Gate Bridge before finishing. I think he started around 5 a.m. and crossed the finish line around 4 or 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 18th.
On Sunday, Sunny ran the 10K race, and I ran the 5K race. It was perfect weather and a gorgeous location with views of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
