SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Top performing companies in Silicon Valley each year are recognized as among the "Fastest Growing." Now, for the second year in a row, bio-tech trailblazer Genentech Inc., has been crowned the "Fastest Company in Silicon Valley," not for its business prowess but for the skills of its half-marathon runners in the Comerica Corporate Challenge at the Metro Silicon Valley Marathon.

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In the second annual Comerica Corporate Challenge, Genentech's winning time of 4 hours, 45 minutes, 25 seconds for the combined times of its top three half-marathon runners was 29 minutes slower than its winning team time in the inaugural challenge a year ago, but good enough to top other fleet- footed corporate teams. The Comerica Cup will be displayed at its headquarters location again for one year.

  The race was held in downtown San Jose on Oct. 29.
  Comerica Bank won the prize for the largest corporate running team.

One of Comerica's runners, Charles McCarroll, a vice president in the middle market division in San Jose, had the fastest time among the corporate teams, at 1 hour, 26 minutes, 34 seconds.

On behalf of the winning corporate teams, $2,250 was donated to The Health Trust, a Bay Area non-profit organization.

In addition to Genentech, the 20 companies that competed in the Comerica Corporate Challenge included runners from Apple Computer, Cisco, Hewlett- Packard, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Yahoo! and the law firm of Baker & McKenzie. Team members had a choice of running or walking in the marathon, half-marathon or 5K run/walk. The entire Metro Silicon Valley Marathon featured more than 3,000 runners from 10 countries and 25 states.

SOURCE: Comerica

CONTACT: Barry Holtzclaw of Comerica, +1-408-556-5111, or
+1-408-315-6554

Web site: http://www.comerica.com/