Race Review The Great Relay Kuala Lumpur

EVENT. The Great Relay KL. 100 km. 4 man team

Kepong Metropolitan Lake-garden, Kuala Lumpur

28 May 2016 Time 06:30 [6:38]

Headline Event Owners RaceBase

Race Directors Vlad Ixel and Jeri Chua Event Organising Company RaceBase Timing partners CheckPoint Timing Systems

PRE RACE.

Entry and information:

Entry into this event was very straight forward and made even easier, and reassuring, by the helpfulness of Vlad. All the questions I posed regarding the event, team structure, late replacement runners etc. etc. were answered very promptly and, without exception, every answer was based around what made being in this event easier.

The face book page and website gave all the information that you required along with some very helpful advice. Updates were frequent and relevant. Jeri and Vlad

The value of the entry price at RM140 per team member, to me, was more than fair. What we got for our entrance fee was far and beyond the norm.

Race registration and kit collection:

Collection dates were good, being spread over the three days prior to the event. But, and all my regular readers know just what is coming, no postal service. Not everyone lives in Kuala Lumpur even if we do have to travel there for events! Having people travelling to pick up kit is unnecessary and not good for the environment, wasting fuel is only second to wasting water. I really doubt that anyone would not have joined if the fee was RM10 extra for kit postage.

Race site Facilities:

There was plenty of space at the venue so no issues with warm up, cool down and stretching.

Toilets, ah yes toilets. Number zero! I cannot believe that such a well organised event did not provide portaloos at the starting area, especially as the event would be running for up to ten hours. The nearest toilets, and they didn’t open until one-hour after the event started, was an eight-hundred metre return journey and as the day got hotter and your body got more tired that distance grew to become unbearable and most certainly unwarranted.

Water, energy drink and food was available just about from the get-go and right through the entire day. The choice and quality of the food was excellent and the staff that were serving us could not have been jollier, top rate all round.

There were very few people staffing the event but they did a commendable job. Just one problem occurred all day, canopies had been set up with tables provided at the start area. Obviously the shade and convenience attracted just about all the participants to set up under the canopies. Not until the canopy areas were full were we told that the canopied areas were NOT for the participants but for ‘suppliers’ and we needed to move onto the surrounding field under what was to become a blazing hot sky.

Parking:

The park car-park area was just four-hundred metres from the starting area and had ample space. But, still one or two felt that his was too far to walk and brought their vehicles to the starting area. Although there is no public transport, at least before the start time, to the park I doubt that a shuttles service would have been helpful.

Care Competitors:

We were looked after extremely well, you could even say we were pampered.

An endless supply of food and drink, not to mention the bottomless freezer of ice-creams. Yoga sessions and the relief of mid-race massages, thanks to Physiowerkz.

mid-race massages, thanks to Physiowerkz

My only complaint/suggestion for improvement in this area, apart from the toilets, would be to provide a large canopy to shade participants, it really did get quite oppressive, just ask Vlad who stood in it for much of the day.

Although we started late it didn’t seem to matter, unlike in most events where people get quite jumpy and agitated if the start is delayed, here it seemed that the atmosphere was more like a large group of friends just waiting to jog off together.

Medical facilities met with everything you could expect and the paramedics got well into the spirit of the event.

RACE.

Organisation:

Course: Traffic control, feed stations, on course medical facilities, marshaling.

It is more than a little difficult, and unfair as a comparison, to score this section as there was no need for any of the above. Being just a three and a half kilometre loop on a park track just good signage ad a roving marshal was all that was required and it worked well.

The course itself was really straight forward with some more than gentle inclines to keep you working hard. But, as is the nature of the beast, it became harder the longer the day wore on to fend off the monotony. It is not a course that I could honestly say I enjoyed running, but that said, I would not have missed this event for the world.

POST RACE.

Most of the post-race elements have already been covered. Due to the event type the start and finish almost blended into the very same thing. My only regret was that the massage parlor had closed for the day by the time we finished.

Placings were announced as they happened, indeed you could follow your progress, or otherwise, for the whole duration of your run. I do feel that it would have been good to have a posting board to enable us to keep track with what was happening in each of the event distances and categories.

Prize ceremonies were an ongoing affair, from the three-and-a-half-hour mark, when the first of the distance categories finished, each and every team was introduced and awarded their medals. It seemed to reinforce the friendliness of what was actually a very competitive event.

AFTER EVENT

The FULL results were extremely timely. Published the very next day.

Post event communication has been predominantly by hundreds of photographs.

Score:

As this event was so different to just about any other event I have ever attended I don’t think I can give an overall score as normal.

However, what I can say about this event is that the minor ‘errors’ can easily be put right for the future to make this event a top of the entry list for anyone who wants to try their hand at a distance relay.

I would like to thank the Race Directors Jeri and Vlad for a well-managed, enjoyable and safe event.

Happy Running

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

My personal race, within Team Mere Mortals Running.

6th. of 11 8:47:30

My first ever relay race, I have scoured my memory bank and not even as a kid.

When I signed up for this event I must admit I totally underestimated it. My initial thoughts were three-point-five k’s, then a rest of forty-minutes or so then another ……. Well that was the part I got right. The part I got wrong was ‘that should be quite easy’

So, now let’s add in the following: A slight nagging twinge from last week-ends race, the high humidity, the scorching temperature, the fact that that hill got bigger every time you ran up it and most of all my old body did not like the ‘rest’ between runs.

in a team of friends DNF was not an option

I had set my desired pace at 4:50 mpk, around six-percent better than half-marathon pace. Surely doable given the rests, but, as much as anything else it seemed to be the rests that were hurting my performance as much as any of the other elements mentioned. Stretching, hydrating and feeding between laps didn’t seem to have the desired effect on my muscles. Each rest period only saw me start the next lap stiffer and less able to get into my stride.

By lap four my lap-pace had fallen from 4:49 mpk on lap one to 5:03 mpk but worse was to follow. On laps five and six my general fatigue and stiffness was now accompanied by some quite severe calf/achillies pain and my laps took an additional two-minutes each. Lap seven: Perhaps never to be forgotten, perhaps also what made this event so special. The bare fact is that I crawled around the last lap in over twenty-four-minutes at a pace 6:51 mpk. But, what that lap taught me was that running for a team means so much more than just putting on the team colours. Had I been running solo in that much discomfort I would have DNF but in a team of friends DNF was not an option, I had to finish.

In summary I would consider that this event turned from a race to the hardest session of long tempo repeats I have ever experienced. I am sure that this one ‘workout’ will reap dividends in my future running, once I’ve rested these sore muscles.

Just by way of a byword our team of Mere Mortals were put together over the internet with three people that I had never met, then just face book acquaintances, now, great running buddies.