Race Review: Compressport 100 Semenyih series 25km trail.

EVENT NAME: Compressport 100 Semenyih 25k Trail Race

VENUE: Semenyih Eco Park

DATE: 05 Nov 2016 Time: 7:00 [7:02]

Headline Event Owners: Compressport 100

Event Organising Company: My Triathlon Shop

Race Director: KC Tan. Course Director: Ray Lee.

Timing company: Checkpoint Spot were excellent.

Registration company: LIV3LY.COM were very easy and efficient.

THE EVENT

There had been some changes made to the routes, and distances, due to landslides that were caused by recent torrential rains. This saw the need to add in several kilometres of road to avoid the dangerous areas.

The trails themselves were a good mix of short stiff inclines and some steep rutted descents mainly on plantation roads. Being mixed with some narrow sections along ridges and winding pathways through rubber plantations made for an interesting and challenging course.

Unfortunately, that is all I can comment on as far as the run itself is concerned.

My run report, at this point, is cut short because almost the entire field were derailed by an unmarked trail. It seemed quite evident at the time that there were no last-minute checks made on the route markings, as, Y-junctions, cross-tracks and T-junctions where all left unmarked and unmarshaled, however, the RD assures me that a check was performed immediately prior to the start.

Large numbers of runners came to a total standstill and rang the emergency number for assistance, two mobile marshals were sent out on bikes to advise the runners. Having first set people off in one direction they then sent them back to the original Y-junction where it would seem the original problem stemmed from. It was at this point that the female-runner, Karen, who is apparently connected in some way to the organiser, immediately pronounced that “one of the front runners have done this” This sort of unfounded knee-jerk reaction to save face and pass the blame only makes things worse. The unfounded claim was very short lived as proceeding on the ‘correct’ course, as indicated by the bike marshal, only brought us to another full stop and return to the same point.

Now almost the entire field was congregated in one place, and still, with no real idea where to go, most settled down and waited, for around forty-minutes, until firm confirmation of the correct course was received. An alternative course was then taken back to the original mis-marked junction, which was around one kilometre back up the trail. From there we were back on the right track and the run continued.

The remainder of the route was generally well marked, so, it is quite probable that something had been tampered with. But, the untimely manner in which it was dealt with was inexcusable and the immediate accusation of the front runners was unwarranted and inflammatory.

EVENT SCORE CARD SUMMARY

PRE RACE.

Entry and information:

Event information and updates were good, but only on Facebook. 9/10. Contact details: Facebook messages seem to be. Web-site (http://compressport100.com/main/my/semenyih/) at the time of posting was not updated re course or start time changes. 6/10.

Value of entry: At the early bird price of RM 130 [160] + booking 136.50. Was always a little too high. I have scored this with the effect of the delay! 14/20.

Race registration and kit collection: The collection point at the venue the day prior and on the day, the kit collection was swift and well organised. 17/20. 42/60

Race site Facilities:

Space at the venue 10/10. Toilets: Numbers woefully short, constant queue, the condition was acceptable but supplies ran out. 5/10.

Start area: Staffing and information pre-race was good. After-race no one of consequence to be found? 6/10.

Parking and transport: Transport was arranged from sponsored hotel, but, transport in from Semenyih would have helped as there was insufficient space at the venue. Many parked on the road. 7/10. 28/40

Care of Competitors:

Starting time and control: Started very slightly late with no control. Of all things, the starting chute was loaded from the front, creating a great deal of pushing and shoving, because no access was left at the sides of the chute. 6/10. Medical facilities: I have to take the word of the organisers that there were first-aid facilities at all check-points and at the start/finish area. I cannot say I noticed them, but, perhaps by that time I had other things on my mind, like getting off the course as I was injured. 18/20. 24/30

THE RACE.

Organisation:

Course management: The road sections traffic control was adequate although some more coning would have improved the safety. Signage was too small and infrequent in places. The difficulty and enjoyment factor would have been very high had it not been for the problem caused by the extended delay due to the course marshals not knowing the course. 24/40.

Marshaling: Quantity was far too small, to the point of being near absent out on the course. The quality of the marshals who were thrown into the deep-end to sort out the route problem was not good, but, that could have been down to the fact that they didn’t know the course and should not have been sent to do the job of the Course Director. 10/20. Feed stations: Numbers were hard to judge, as by the time anyone reached the first check-point, feed station, they had run anywhere from four to eight extra kilometres. The staffing numbers were high and generally good natured, even when they were confronted by some very disgruntled runners. Stocking as I went through looked good. 14/20. 48/80

POST RACE.

Finish line ease: The medal and food collection, choice of food and hydration all good. There was no sign of the finishers shirt and goody-bag, perhaps I missed them due to the red-mist in front of me, but isn’t that why there are people to ensure finishers get what they have paid for? 5/10.

Resting and cool down areas: Good. 9/10. Race information and prize presentation:

There was no top placings posting board, for the forty-minutes I stayed and chatted to friends there were no announcements. I did not wait for the prize ceremony as I knew I would not be able to keep my mouth shut and I didn’t want to spoil the day for those who succeeded against all the adversities. 5/10. 19/30

AFTER EVENT

Results: At the time of posting there are no results on the organisers pages, nor any information as to where they can be found. 0/20. The results can be found on the Checkpoint Spot web-site, http://results.checkpointspot.asia/results.aspx?CId=17036&RId=3059. They were posted in full, very swiftly. However, to me they are irrelevant to all but the very few that escaped the confusion out on the course.

Post event communication: Zero, on all sites, at the time of posting. 0/10. 0/30 Total 173/270

P.S. The RD has personally replied to the draft of my review I provided, for which I thank him. I have taken his comments into consideration and amended my review accordingly.

My overall score for this event is 64.1%

COMMENT. This is just about the lowest score that I have ever given, and I hope that no future event will change that.

Would I return to this event: Not in the near future. Until I see positive reports of their events I doubt that I can trust Compressport in any future trail run.

I feel that Compressport, as a company, should think long and hard as to whether they should ever consider compromising their great brand name by allowing it to be used in conjunction to any future events here in Malaysia.

Happy Running

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

My personal race.

4:58:32 [31.1 kms] I did not cross the finishing mat to purposely record a DNF.

My race started, more or less, to plan. Both the 25 and 50km events were set off together so it was difficult to gauge your actual position and the courses remained the same until CP1 at 9.5km.

There were around ten or twelve ‘hares’ that got off to a flying start and soon disappeared out of sight. Then there was a group of perhaps twenty-five or so that I was attached to and at the turn into the trail head at 2.5km there was a clear gap back to the next group. The trail started with a stiff climb of about 3km and at the summit there was now just a string of about ten runners, Then down a steady slope through tangled vine like vegetation, following the marker tape right at the Y-junction and now on more undulating terrain and running on wide open tracks.

At 6.3km the leading runners of our group ground to a halt, we had hit a cross-track with no markers. There were too many options, so, as we hadn’t seen any marker flags since the junction it was decided to ring the emergency number for advice. They said they would send a marshal. Some decided to stay and wait, while five, including myself, decided to venture on having reasoned that no markers were not a problem as there had been no other options to this point and had we needed to turn, either left or right at the cross-trail then it would have been marked.

In due course, from a ridge above us, a motorbike marshal told us to turn back, sh1t, obviously a bad call on our part. Back we went, not to the cross-junction but to the previous Y-junction. Here we joined the back of the pack, from top twenty-ish to last place. It was there that I heard the statement “It’s the front runners that have done this” and I let it be known what I thought! A stupid, groundless statement that just inflamed an already stressful situation. I suggested that she concentrated on sorting out the mess rather than trying to push the blame from her connections onto some other party.

It was decided that the left fork was the correct one, but at the top of the incline there was an unmarked T-junction, all stop. More phone calls, return of the motorbike marshals, more maps on phones, still no real answer.

A couple of guys took a look right and me and another couple of guys took a look left, it was on that investigation run that I trapped my foot in a rut and reacquainted myself with the Achilles tendon pain I had been suffering prior to TMBT. I left the other guys to continue and made my way back to the group where I declared myself DNF and started my return to back track to the start.

I wasn’t too far, perhaps one-and-a-half kilometres, into my return journey when I met up with some of the runners, they informed me that they were back on the correct course.

I decided to continue and finish, mainly fast walking with the occasional jogging session thrown in. However, at the finish I did not cross the timing mat as I cannot be sure that I covered the entire course, regardless that I covered more than an extra few kilometres, but even more so I did not want to have such a bad time on my record due to such a fiasco.

I did take the finishers plaque, it has been placed amongst my NEVER AGAIN collection.

P.S. It was great to see that two young ladies showed all but one of us men the way home, with Jerry Chua just over four-minutes behind the overall winner, Kalaiarasan Angamuthoo, and Katrin Olsen less than two-minutes back in third overall. Congratulations to you all.

I know that the two leading ladies also ran four-kilomtres over distance due to similar course problems.

Photo credits: Albert Lee, Jeffrey Teo and Jack Ah Beh.