Race Director's Report - TURR 2016 (PNG)

The Race

"It's not easy to organize an event", we heard this very often, and I also never expect I would be writing a race report from an organizer's point of view. As a first timer, we have only 3 people working on every aspect of organizing an event, we have tried everything we can to provide the best service that we can afford. Here are some of the post-event review and report we would like to share with our stakeholders.

Credit to the Event Team

The event team was awesome! The entire team worked really hard with enthusiasm and commitment, and I am sincerely grateful for all their help and support!

Flag-off time

We have received a lot of feedback regarding the starting time, the majority of their concern is the flag off time is a bit late, we take note on this and will discuss with the mall management about starting earlier in our next edition. Starting early not just to avoid the heat, but also avoid the increasing traffic on the main road.

Safety management

Our priorities are safety (for both the participants and event team). However, we did face some safety challenges.

"Should we let our student volunteers, stay on the main road as traffic marshal?"

Our decision is “NO”, as the majority of them are inexperienced volunteers, and as the organizer, we are responsible for their safety as well, at the end, most of them were allocated around the venue to serve finisher their happy smiling face.

"Without the students, would the 7 traffic police + 5 Rela + 2 motorbikes enough to take care of the main road?”

Obviously, it is not. After some complaints/suggestion from our runners review.

"Why there is no road blocking using traffic cones?"

Initially, we have asked/apply for traffic cones from various parties/authorities, unfortunately, none of them are able to provide us with enough cones that allow us to close the whole lane for our participants. As a result, we are now looking to purchase cone as part of our expansion plan and we promise to provide a more quality event/experience to our participants.

Overall and to be improved

We are fairly obsessed with details and believe that by focusing on them is a great way to ensure that event runs well. Clearly, the event was a success, but there were a few things we could improve:

Route and Traffic Control (to be improved)

While there is not much traffic along Jalan Seri Tg Pinang, but from the exit point to Jalan Tanjung Bungah until the U-turn at Four Points by Sheraton is considered unsafe for our participants. Some feedbacks we received is to set the route inside Jalan Seri Tg Pinang only (4.2KM per loop). We will take this into consideration as everyone has their own preference, we will do our best to cater your request.

Water Station (and maybe food station?) (to be improved)

There is enough mineral water and isotonic drinks (Redbull) for our participants for water station after the U-turn point and also the 5km/finishing point. We will also consider to include some light breakfast along the route in our next edition.

Security and Check-out

Everyone is able to receive their entitlement without a long queue, thanks for the effort from our volunteers.

Admin and Baggage Deposit (to be improved)

We lacked proper process flow for this section, this is something we should improve on our next event also!

Results and Statistic

Fastest Timing for each category:-

Female: 00:51:05

Male: 00:42:39

Mixed: 00:48:15

Category	Total	Finishers	Percentage (%)
Female	13	12	92.31
Male	30	26	86.67
Mixed	54	50	92.59

For 10KM category, out of 97 registered teams, 88 teams completed their race and 9 teams did not complete their run, considering some of them are relatively new to running, the completion is actually quite high. Out of this 9 team, 7 team DNS and 1 team DNF, 1 is QRY (Pending confirmation from RU). We look forward to maintaining similar rate by having a bigger crowd next year. Therefore, we will be sticking to the cut-off time of 2 hours for the 10K category.

As for 5K category, there is no record or statistic we can share. Overall, they quite enjoy after speaking with them about their experience throughout the event.

Participating Merchant(s)

We have approached several merchant, a few of them initially would like to join and have their booth set up on REPC/RACE day, unfortunately, they pull out just a few weeks before the REPC/RACE day, this could be the charges impose by the Mall Management or they are of the view that our event will not be able to provide the ROI for them. We respect their decision and will keep in touch with all of them.

And finally...

Congratulations to all of our podium winners, you guys are awesome! Congratulations to everyone who finished the full course, this is a remarkable achievement that you achieve this together with your partner! Congratulations to everyone who lined up on the start line in Straits Court, regardless of whether you finished because you had the determination that very few runners have!

It was an incredible experience for us as the organizer, and I know that some of the volunteers have the intention to enroll again in 2017 and some runners are already planning to have their revenge.

Thanks for all the good and bad comments and we see you in 2017 again!

PASEM