A run less ordinary

What Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan expects to be a lively run with regional marathoners turns out to be a disappointment in organisation

goodie bag tent.

There were tents along the road near the finish line but they were all sponsors’ tents.

Really? Who puts sponsors’ tents closest to the finish line?

You put goodie bag tents close to the line and sponsors’ tents further away so that after the runners have taken their entitlement, they can walk around to see what the sponsors have to offer.

It turned out that there was a table — yes table, not tent — from which the 20,000 runners could collect their goodie bags and medals.

There was a large tent next to it, and under it, some people were busy packing goodie bags, which should have been done the night or day before so that lanes could be formed and there would be space for runners to collect their entitlement.

It was an appalling sight with someone saying, “Two lanes, two lanes.”

Have these people organised races before? You need to use dividers to create maybe six to seven lanes to prevent a long queue. You cannot order tired runners to queue when no designated lanes are prepared for them.

SMALL SPACE

The 15km race was flagged off at 7am, which was late for the distance. But even if one overlooked the late starting time and the small starting pen, the route wasn’t what one expected.

Roads were not closed so at some point, runners were running with moving cars. There was no race crew throughout the race. It was as if the runners were all by themselves.

Putrajaya is a great place for a run because the roads are wide (if they are closed with no cars parked on the sidewalks). Instead, this run took runners to the narrow jogging track along the lake.

A jogging track is adequate if you run alone but it’s too small for a race for 5,000

people (for the 15km distance). Some people walked, others stopped to take selfies and this stalled those who wanted torun.

I also found out through the run that the public toilet surrounding the lake wasn’t well-maintained.

Even the service at the water station was slow. Why? The crew poured water from a 5l bottle instead of a 1.5l one, so the process was slower. Some runners had to wait with empty cups.

Overall, it was poor organisation. There were too many runners given the small space. This wasn’t a race where the comfort and enjoyment of runners was given utmost priority.

I suppose the organisers achieved what they wanted — a crowd for the marathon event.

But to put average runners through a disorganised race during a regional event isn’t something we can be proud of.