Running a sub-4 hour marathon is the same as planning a marathon for 10,000 people. Preparation counts as much as execution.
Although I have accomplished neither, it is my generations' core system of self belief that this lack of experience or qualification should not prevent me from commenting on the Energizer Night Race 2011 that was held in Sepang FI Circuit on 16 April.
What transpired that evening was a laundry list of things to avoid in the organising of any event. All event management companies should take heed of the following warnings. Those who do not will find themselves at the mercy of Facebook/Twitter-wielding mobs (or as one particular lady prefers to call them, "hooligans").
- Don't focus too much on the smokescreens and mirrors at the expense of the basics. The effort to bring in cheerleaders and fireworks could have been better spent on ensuring the safety, health and convenience of the runners are being well taken care of.
- Man the parking lots with reliable and trustworthy parking attendants. Having your car broken into after paying an exorbitant RM 10 to men in RELA uniforms is not any one's idea of a decent race.
- Have multiple entries and exits rather than the now infamously known "Tunnel of Death" would have reduced the risk of death by stampede or lack of oxygen to practically zero. On top of that, people would be more willing to queue without complains if they actually know what they are queuing for. Imagine being at the back of a static 500 meter queue and not being able to make out what is going on in front.
- Employ announcers who does not have the tendency to get on the nerves of the participants. Note to the lady of the mic, it's not what you said, it is HOW you say it. The tone that you used on the runners was rude and severely deficient in terms of a sense of professionalism. In addition, when you have PA systems all over the paddock area, having you yelling into the mic "all runners please come HERE" without telling us exactly where "here" is means as much as the free tampons to the male runners. Most importantly, don't piss off a 10,000 strong crowd and then announce over the PA system your name and mobile number. Not the wisest of decisions.
- Employ enough race marshals and volunteers. Overhearing a marshal scolding a runner "Do you know there are 10,000 of you and only a few of us" and not having the goodie bags prepared on time for the 5.5 KM runners does not say much about the organisers resource planning skills.
- Water! How can an organiser fail so incredibly when it comes to the simplest part of the race? Do not use huge 1.5 L water bottles as runners tend to just grab the bottles while running. Have more than one water station throughout the track. Ensure that there is a sufficient supply of water for ALL categories of runners by the end of race.
- Don't close the rolling shutters when there are people standing UNDERNEATH said shutters.
- Most runners will complete their race within the qualifying time, but this doesn't mean that those who does not deserve to return to a paddock without an organiser, marshal or volunteer in sight! At least have the decency to ensure that all the runners are accounted for before packing up the canopies and leaving.
The organisers silence for an entire Sunday gave the opportunity for disgruntled participants to band together in a show of solidarity. Videos taken from handphones were quickly uploaded, and individuals identified as the faces of the race was tracked down and targeted in a barrage of humiliation, insults, and sometimes, wrongfully, I must add, veiled threats.
On Monday, major daily news media (both print and digital) picked up on the story and this was quickly followed up by general statements of apology from both Energizer and the event management company, Expose Media. What was interesting is that the companies' official press statements were at once contradicted by the personal posting of the Group Director of Expose Media, the aforementioned announcer. The following is her take on that night:
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| Facebook of the Group Director. All names and pictures have been blocked to avoid identification. |
Note her insistence in continuing her categorisations of the participants as "this (sic) hooligans".
The PR mishaps continues with her statement reported in the Malay Mail that Exposure Media Sdn Bhd have lodged a police report, and are currently going through the Facebook accounts created by irate participants. Some have taken that as a threat that the company was searching for defamatory remarks on which a legal suit or further police report may be based on.
In the same daily, it was also revealed that the run was not registered with nor sanctioned by the Sports Commissioner. In defence of the lack of an approval, the Group Director have stated that the "event was not supposed to be sanctioned from the beginning" and that it was merely a "fun run". I for one would like to know how "fun run" is defined, when a race involves 10,000 participants with 4 different distances, and different categories including veterans participants, an event that attracted participants from other countries, and where the police had to provide assistance in crowd control.
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| Printscreen of The Malay Mail website |
The response by the the Sport Commissioner's Office puzzled me as well, when they say they were "in the dark" and they were "unaware of the race" until the media approached them. Unbelievable, when this is the third consecutive year the night race have been held, and no small amount of money have been spent in advertising and promoting the event.
On Monday night, when the official results were announced on the website, participants were greeted with this:
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| 21 KM "Official" results announced on Energizer Night Race 2011 website. |
Multiple record breaking effort all in one night! I've been informed by experienced runners that such times are highly unlikely, especially for a "fun run", while others have commented that "they must have been fast because they were running on an F1 track". This could again be down to the incompetence of the organisers and failure of the technology that they are relying on. Still, announcing the results without validating it with common sense just indicates that they are no longer bothered, and would rather the whole episode be quickly forgotten.
At present, Energizer have announced that all registered participants will be fully refunded. The procedure for claiming for the refund will be released on 21 April, Thursday.
And if I may make a prediction, I would dare say that by this time next year, all will be forgotten and although there may not be another Energizer Night Race for sometime, some other race organiser will be have forgotten the lessons of April 16. Need I remind you that last year's edition of Energizer Night Race left much to be desired as well, and yet this year they were still able to register 10,000 participants. Another popular race held last year, the Standard Chartered Marathon was marred by one fatality among its participants amidst claims of slow emergency and medical response, and yet this has not stopped the marathon from being fully registered months before the race.
A Side Story to the Sorry Episode.
A male participant of the 11.5 KM race, who had, in the melee that broke out during the collection of goodies, medals and certificates, took off with ten medals meant for the 21 KM runners. Upon realising his mistakes, he went back to get more medals. He was stopped as the police have intervened by then.
The punchline of this story? He blogged about it.
He was roundly vilified by the other runners when his blog posting was shared on the "Boycott Energiser Night Race" Facebook account.
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| Extract of the unfortunate blog post. |
In subsequent statements made by this blogger/participant, he said all the medals were redistributed to 21KM runners, whom he assured the rest of the participants, completed the race within the qualifying time. This claim of his was highly suspect, as he was unable to name the runners he distributed the medals to, although he continued in that same sentence that they were his friends and that they were all "veteran runners and have completed their runs previously under the cut off time of 3 hours".
I would like to give our blogger the benefit of doubt, though, as from his other blogposts, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who in the midst of the chaos, made a wrong and cheeky decision.
