SUNDOWN MARATHON: A logistical nightmare
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Jun 2, 2010 - ST Forum
SUNDOWN MARATHONA logistical nightmare
WHAT began as weeks of eager anticipation turned into utter disappointment and frustration last Saturday for many participants in the adidas Sundown Marathon.
The shuttle service ferrying the participants was a disaster. For those who used the service from Pasir Ris, the waiting time was too long and there were not enough buses to ferry them to the race site on time. Therefore, several participants missed the start of the race and began their run late.
To make things worse, those who eventually caught a taxi had to alight far from the race site and walk at least 5km to the start/end point at Changi Exhibition Centre.
Among them were half-marathoners and full-marathoners. Imagine how tired they must have been even before they began their race.
The 21km race was officially flagged off at 9pm. As a result of the poor shuttle logistics, the latecomers had to begin their 21km race at 10pm. But the Land Transport Authority had already instructed that traffic from the Changi coast side should be open at 10pm. Hence, the marshals had to redirect these late runners to turn left from Aviation Park Road.
This caused the latecomers to miss the Changi Coast loop, which is about 3km long, and they ended up running shorter than the actual 21km.
Despite this, their finished timings were still recorded and ranked under the race results for the 21km distance category. The organiser should have excluded them from the rankings and simply displayed their timings.
What they did was very unprofessional because these runners were ranked together with those who had completed the full 21km. And some of those runners who ran a shorter route obtained a better rank.
Despite the countless negative feedback by runners on Facebook, event organiser HiVelocity has yet to respond to any of it publicly.
I sincerely hope the organiser will take note of these issues and learn from them instead of sweeping the matter under the carpet.
Joyce Neo (Ms)
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Jun 2, 2010 - ST Forum
Disturbing lessons for enthusiasts
LAST Saturday's adidas Sundown Marathon was a very disappointing experience for myself and my friends. Here are a few disturbing lessons we enthusiasts took away from the event:
Always study the running route in detail beforehand. We had wrongly assumed the fees we paid were inclusive of well-laid-out signs along the route to ensure runners would not get confused. We had also thought there would be representatives of the organiser along the way to give clear directions.
Don't go by the guidebook. We had wrongly assumed the guidebook's recommendation - which was to take public transport and the shuttle service - was the best option. Because of the two-hour wait for the shuttle bus, we missed the start time.
It is never about timing. When we finally arrived at the event venue, we were told there would be no official timing for us. Thank you organiser, for drilling into us the true spirit of running. It is all about the run. Who cares about the timing?
Kayleigh Ho (Ms)
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no good to be running/jogging at nite anyway
fighting for air (oxygen) -
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Jun 4, 2010 - ST Forum
Marathon organiser sorry, promises improvements
WE THANK Ms Joyce Neo ('A logistical nightmare') and Ms Kayleigh Ho ('Disturbing lessons for enthusiasts') for their feedback on Wednesday on the adidas Sundown Marathon last Saturday.
As this year's race was at a new location which many participants were unfamiliar with, we decided to offer shuttle bus services between Changi Exhibition Centre and Pasir Ris MRT station as an added service to assist runners getting to and from the race site.
The closure of Changi Coast Road (between Airline Road and Aviation Park Road) from 8.30pm to 10.30pm was necessary to facilitate the 9pm flag-off of the half-marathon 21km category. All participants were notified through the Athlete's Guide and sent an SMS reminder the day before the race. Unfortunately, because of unforeseen heavy traffic conditions, participants were delayed and prevented from getting to the start point on time.
We apologise to those who were affected by the traffic conditions, which caused them to miss the flag-off. We felt their disappointment and it was for that reason that we decided to have another flag-off so that latecomers could still run the race.
The shortening of the route was inevitable because we were bound by timing constraints as the roads had to be reopened by 10.30pm. We had two choices - either to go without an additional flag-off or shorten the race distance. We chose the latter because we knew some of our participants still wanted to run, albeit a slightly shorter route. Therefore, we hope all participants will understand and support our decision regarding this.
The results posted on the website are provisional. The final results, to be released in 14 days, will be sorted based on the distances completed.
We take all feedback seriously and any input will certainly assist us in improving the flow of the event. We will review them with the aim of improving next year's event.
Benjamin Wee
General Manager, HiVelocity