Race Review Shah Alam 21 km. Night Run

Dateran Shah Alam, Malaysia.

17 January 2016 Time 1:30 [1:38]

Headline Event Owners PERSATUAN OLAHRAGA PARA SELANGOR Race Director Unknown

Event Organising Company Unknown

PRE RACE.

Entry and information: Very easy with regular updates of information regarding all aspects of the event. One minor hitch: The stated venue was Dataran Shah Alam, following directions to said address by GPS took us to the said address which was some five kilometres from the actual start point, providing coordinates for GPS use stops these occurrences.

Race registration and kit collection: For the two days prior to the event close to the event venue.

Collection was well organised, quick and easy.

Two small company stands were set up at the collection venue selling various items including ‘last moment, oh I forgot the …..’ items.

Race site Facilities: Plenty of space at the venue, toilets were quite plentiful just a four/five minute wait at peak time. Water and 100 plus were available pre-race. There were plenty of ‘staff members’ around if any one needed assistance.

Parking: There were several large parking areas near the start point but most being a little further away did not stop hundreds from parking on main roads, pavements and service areas. They will run 21 km. but cannot not walk 500 mtrs. from their car?

Shuttles: There were no shuttles provided.

Competitors: We were well looked after pre race, however there were just a few slightly strange occurrences.

There was a warm up ‘instructor’; however, the whole of the warm up was a dance routine which led many participants, me included, to walk away for the warm up area to leave it to the dancers.
Somebody got it horribly wrong when it was decided to load the starting-chute from the front! As you can imagine very few wanted to keep moving and end up at the back thus creating a totally unnecessary crush. This led to the first few rows actually starting in front of the starting arch, luckily for them the first timing point was just a little further forward than they were.
Just a couple of minutes from start time a wheelchair display team were brought on to entertain us. Firstly due to how this was presented only about the first three or four rows of runners in the chute could see them. Secondly due to when they were brought on the start was eight minutes late. Just bad planning I suppose.

RACE.

Organisation: Apart from the things mentioned above the event was organised to the highest level.

Course: A good city road course, rarely what you could call interesting, especially at night. There was around a total of 279 metres of ascent, no steep climbs but some long tough inclines to test Legs, Lungs and Will Power. Overall, a not too tough a course, that I thoroughly enjoyed. If anybody set a PB on this course I would be surprised and they should be very proud.

Marshalling and feed stations: The course was, for the most part, run on unclosed roads, being a night run the roads were generally not too busy but due to the excellent, and abundant marshals it would not have caused a problem had they been. I have not seen such a well marshalled event here in Malaysia and perhaps nor anywhere else, very impressive.

Feed and water stations were both ample in number and well stocked as I went through. The duty marshals were very well drilled and a great bunch of happy and encouraging people. Thank you all.

POST RACE.

The post-race was smooth and efficient and although there was very little choice of food and drink what was available was good and plentiful.

Plenty of resting area was available and all the medical requirements were well in place.

Top placings were quickly announced but for a future improvement perhaps a posting board could be put in place as many back of the packers, who were still to arrive home, would have been interested to know who the speedsters were.

The FULL results were available in a very timely manner, yes full results rather than just individual results. To have added cream to the dish age grouping the results would have been just great, for an oldie like me at least.

My overall score for this event is 87.5% the few minor ‘errors’ in planning stops me from giving a 95% and anyone who reads my reviews knows that I never give more than a 95% as no matter what there is always a way to improve in everything we do..

Overall I think the Race Director and all who have been involved can be very proud of a well managed, enjoyable and safe event. High Five’s all round.

Happy Running

When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

Other comments;

Amrul Kareem: Great event , congats !!

Nixam Muktar: Crazy route... Hehehe

Save N Rent Car: Thank you..looking forward shah alam FM 2017 !!

Mohd Azmi: Congrats all. Very well organized event.

My personal race.

My first event of 2016 certainly let me know that I am still undertrained even if no longer over weight. A hot and humid night, 26 deg. @ 94% humidity, added to the difficulty of the course. However, given the above, I am almost happy with my performance on the day, at least I know I gave it all I had.

Target time, before knowing the course topography: 1:52:00 finishing time 1:58:30. Veteran [40+] 15th. of 195. Overall 53rd. of 1160.