Race Review Bukit Jugra 14km Trail Run
EVENT. Bukit Jugra 14km Trail Run.
Bukit Jugra, Banting
06 march 2016 Time 07:15 [07:42]
Headline Event Owners: Undisclosed Race Director: Undisclosed
Event Organising Company: Undisclosed
Race Review SCORE CARD with Organiser’s comments
PRE RACE.
Entry and information:
Entry via Sports360 was very straight forward but the event information was very basic.
Organiser updates of information was slow and date-lines were not adhered to and there were no contact details provided other than for Sports360, the only contact was via message on facebook/web-site and they were infrequently answered and slow when they were.
Value of entry price* at RM80 was on face value very good. The event shirt is non-technical, I personally would not wear it to run in, the medal is good and special medals and trophies down to 10th place were worth winning.
Race registration and kit collection:
Kit collection was refreshing, as of late almost every event has had kit collection away from the event site and a week or more prior, it suites the vendor by getting a crowd through the door but at the expense of the competitor's time and money, but this event offered collection at the event site the day prior and the hours before the event start.
There ends the good bit, I decided to collect the day prior as I live on the door-step. Arriving at the back of a long queue, of two, yes just two seemingly non-moving queues. Once near to the front it was clear why things were so slow, reams of paper to be searched through for the participant’s details, then number and tee size information written onto a piece of paper put aside until one of just two people get to it and collate bib, tee and goodie-bag together. Why on earth were the bags not made up prior so it was just a case of handing over the filled bag?
Race site Facilities:
Space at the venue was ample. No additional toilets were provided over and above those at the venue leaving just six cubicles for one-thousand plus people. Water was not available pre-race.
Staffing, information was a no-no everyone was trying to get the kit collection sorted out so the event could get started
Parking:
I was lucky enough to be dropped off by my logistics manager, wife Delia, as parking, for want of a real description, was chaotic, cars parked or abandoned on both side of the narrow country road up-to three-quarters of a kilometre away. There were no shuttle buses.
Care of Competitors:
There was nothing organised in the way of a warm-up. There was no form of timing for the event and the starting time was delayed by more than twenty-five minutes and there was no control of the starting chute with much of the front section being made up of predomanately of newbies and social runners. Medical facilities were not good, one ambulance that arrived after seven o’clock but it just parked up?
RACE.
Organisation:
Course management:
Although the road sections were not closed off the traffic control was good.
The trail sections of the course were both interesting and technical giving a good enjoyment factor but there was too much tarmac for a trail run, the event should have been advertised as a Road & Trail Run.
Course signage and markers were woeful and created many problems, please see my personal race details of my experience. Judging from social media many, possibly hundreds, ran wrong distances, got lost and I heard that some just gave up and back tracked.
Marshalling:
The pitiful quantity of on course marshals and their bad positioning was the main reason for this run to degenerate into a farce. The marshals should not be held to blame; they can only do what they are asked to do at the point where they are placed. It is fairly and squarely upon the shoulders of the organisers, in the person of Race Director, to ensure the safety and clarity of the course and they let us all down very badly. There were a good number of feed stations, well stocked and bizarrely OVER staffed? If only the volunteers had been properly utilised we could have had a great run. No medical facilities were on the course
Finish line collection of medal, food and water was fine.
POST RACE.
The choice of food was limited to fruits and drinks but were plentiful. My only criticism is that they were in the open, no ice so everything was warm. Resting and cool-down areas were plentiful and some shaded areas were available. The sports massages seemed to go down very well with most tables full when I passed by. Medical attendants were hard to find, even the ambulance had moved. If there were any I did not find them.
Top placings were not announced during the thirty minutes I stayed around and there was certainly no posting board. I was so disapointed with the event I moved off way before the prize ceremony so I am afraid that I cannot atest to the quality of the presentations or prize draws.
AFTER EVENT
To date no results of any kind have been posted and post event communication has been event photographs only.
N.B. I have asked questions on the face book page, that to date have been unanswered. However, I did track down someone from the organisers who gave me an e-mail address, so I could let them comment on my review before I published.
Their reply: First of all i would like to say Thank You for entering and supporting our event.We are really sorry for all the mistakes and tragedy that happened last sunday.As you said in your review,this running event was held for the first time. For your information,we are not a specialist event organising company.We only a local person in Banting that loved to cycling and running.Most of the committee member only a common person that have their own job. Since we really loved this kind of hobby,all of us have decided to organizing trail running event at our own place.
Regarding your poor comment about our race kit collection,please be aware that we have announced that collection only will be started at 12pm on saturday but many runner come so early at 10.30am.It will be very unpleasant for us to make them wait too long so we have decided to start a collection although we're still not finished to sort all the things.
Here we plead guilty and take all the responsibility for mistakes on the issue of the route.We have tried to give our best but the situation prevailing during the early morning race kit pick-up causes all things to be irregular.
I would like to thank and commend them for their reply and have, and, if they intend to try again next year, I have offered to assist in an advisory capacity.
*Based on price against other similar events as advertised.
My overall score for this event is 45% the woeful organisation of the entire event leaves me to hope that the organisers never attempt another event, unless, they employ a professional race director and/or event management company.
Overall I think the Race Director and all who have been involved should not give up their day jobs.
Happy Running
When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
Other comments;
Simon Cook Utterly rubbish organisation at Bukit Jugra Trail Run. There is more to organising a run than getting a bunch of goodie bags, medals t shirts and a lucky draw. Most of the competitive runners got lost as there was less route markings than a hash whilst half of the walkers didn't do half the trail. A race isn't meant to have checks! If you are going to organise a race without timing chips you need route marshals and check points... What an utter waste of time!
Gina Cook Nice spot for 14km trail run, shame badly organisations, the course was not very well marked out.
Mohammad Sukaimi Bin Ali Pikiran ni. Macam mana boleh lari 8.3km bila saya register 14km? Di mana salah pusing ni?
Najmi Arif Agreed the organizer is poor and less marshall if at certain junction. If this they cant sort out how they want to create a big event?
My personal race.
So much has been promised so now to test the product.
I was lucky enough to be dropped off by my logistics manager, wife Delia, as parking, for want of a real description, was chaotic, cars parked or abandoned on both sides of the narrow country road up-to three-quarters of a kilometre from the start point.
On entering the start/finish site, around one and a half hours’ pre-kick-off, the first thoughts that entered my head were "well, we won't be starting on time" the queue for kit collection was out of the door and despite the horrors of the previous day the 'system' had not been changed.
There was one rather unnerving announcement made prior to the start, the announcer calmly asked us to follow the orange or yellow 'flags', he wasn’t sure as he had been told different a colour by two different people. As it turned out the 'flags' were a mixture of orange and yellow. Several 'please be patient' announcements later and we were ushered to the start line some thirty-five minutes late.
Flag dropped and down the drive-way and onto the road, the road of which this trail race will be run on for around five of the fourteen kilometres, the Bukit Jugra Trail and Road Run.
Just a kilometre, or so, into the run the first lack of marshalling reared its ugly head. Two male runners peeled off the route and took to the road up towards the air-force camp, it wasn't until we had completed the first forest loop that it was evident that the route brought us back onto the very road they had taken, saving something like one-and-a-half kilometres of hard trail running. When I say running, that first forest loop was almost impossible to run due to the steep banks, very narrow path-ways and the overhanging vegetation, it really became a procession of hikers so their advantage was high indeed.
From the top of the hill the trail took us around the perimeter of the air-force base, more or less, in single file until we broke out onto the first and very technical downhill section that led us to the river through a palm-oil estate. Here there were a few more stuttering stop-starts due to the lack of clear markings, then onto the check point and a long road section back to the base of the hill. Pushing up the rock-face and into another forest section, legs burning and chest heaving.
Remember the 'follow the orange or yellow flags'? Well there they were on our right, off we went, upping the pace a little as we were now into the last three or so kilometres.
Mutterings from behind, calls from in front slowed the pace, we had been here before and what's more there were back markers approaching from the opposite direction. We were now a stationary group of around twenty frustrated runners. Could anyone remember if the route reused a trail section? should we turn back? should we push on? Well we pushed on - wrong decision, we ended up retracing the complete palm-oil section back to the base of the hill. It turns out that the track up run alongside the track down and the 'flag' we followed was for the other track. No marshal, no signage, just two and a half extra kilometres.
However, our little ‘lost’ group pushed on to the finish and enjoyed the run itself and the company of new friends. Just to crown the whole affair as I approached the finish-line, along with a new running buddy we had to skirt around the car that was allowed to drive down the finishing lane straight into the oncoming runners. Thank you organisers whoever you are, I only doubled up this week-end to support a local event, how I wished I hadn’t.
The desperate shortage and bad positioning of marshals combined with the extremely inadequate course marking turned what were extremely good forest sections into a complete joke.
However, despite the trials and tribulations of the run, I, for one, really enjoyed my run, it was the race that had been spoilt and me being competitive by nature it is important that I know how I compare with my peers. But, as no results were given at the event, until the prize giving, nor have any been published I will never know.
Thanks to the wonders of the technology built into my Tom-Tom I was able to 'remove' the extra loop ran and extrapolate my actual course time for the run, 1:48:22 now to find anyone who knows their time for running the correct course, good luck on that exploit!
Congratulations to our Champions: Whoever you may be.
