2013
13 participant in the 35th Warsaw Marathon.
Career, Citi Service Center
Last Sunday, on September 29, Citi’s Socially Active team of 13 participated in the 35th Warsaw Marathon. This year, thanks to a new volunteer initiative, the team hit the over 42-kilometer distance combining their passion for running with commitment to help. The team members were employees of Citi Service Center and Citi Handlowy.
For each kilometer run during the Warsaw Marathon, Citi Handlowy’s Kronenberg Foundation was going to contribute PLN 5.00 to a socially-oriented project. All you had to do to help those in need was to register for a project run by volunteers.
One of the originators of the initiative was Maciej Derek, once a participant of the 2013 Summer Internship Program, now a tester at the User Acceptance Testing Team within AML. You can read his account below:
“The 35th Warsaw Marathon was an excellent opportunity to meet other runners from the company, and to form a team with a passion for running. I decided to create one joint team consisting of employees from Bank Handlowy, Citibank International and Citibank Europe under one common name. To facilitate communication between the team members, I used the new and innovative Citi Collaborate platform, which enhances information exchange within groups. I was soon joined by 12 other runners. Already one month before the marathon, we had this idea to combine running with the work of the Kronenberg Foundation. A major part of training consisted of hours of exercises, jogs and runs. My training was quite intense as it required me to run some 30 to 40 km per week for the last 4 months (I have been running for 3 years now). Together with people from the Foundation, we decided that our team should be named Citi – społecznie aktywni (Citi Socially Active); the name will also be used for other running events. To exploit fully the promotional potential of the event, each participant was wearing a T-shirt promoting the Kronenberg Foundation. And so we set off to fight the over 42-kilometer distance, the time limit and our own weaknesses. They say that you reach a wall after 30 kilometers of running during a marathon: your muscles are exhausted and the finish line seems to be still far away. I, too, started feeling increasingly tired at that point. At such moments, a banana and energy gel washed down with an isotonic drink can work wonders J. A half an hour or so later, we reached the long-awaited finish line at the National Stadium. The whole group of thirteen Citi representatives finished the marathon, which was in itself a reason to cheer. The marathon is the first such initiative that combines social commitment with sports. Further activities are planned for the new season starting next spring. More information will be available soon.”
