Race Review Cyberjaya Night Duathlon
EVENT. NAME: Cyberjaya Night Duathlon
VENUE: Cyberjaya
DATE: -27 Oct 2017 Time: 20:00 [20:15]
Headline Event Owners: Night Duathlon
Event Organising Company: KAZ Pro Sports
Race Director: Information requested
Timing company: Check Point Spot. Excellent.
Registration company: My Race Online.
PLEASE NOTE: This review is based on my personal observations and experience of the event and is intended to be helpful to other runners for their future event selection and also to aid the organisers by giving a honest and unbiased opinion of both the good and the not so good elements as I found them. Where, on the rare occasion I have used information other than my own it will be clearly stated as such and will have been from a trusted source and corroborated by others.
THE EVENT
Statement by KAZ Pro Sports CIND 2017 is a platform developed entirely to contribute to the development of “Multisport” industry in Malaysia. This year, our mission is to organize a world standard Multisport event in collaboration with various institution, corporate and industry partners. Introducing “The First Full Fledge Night Duathlon Made in Malaysia” .
EVENT SCORE CARD SUMMARY
PRE-RACE.
Entry and information:
Initial event information and updates: Event details were constantly updated, unfortunately this included the postponement announcement that gave no reason just a new date. There were plenty of good things done in the lead up to the event by way of training days, fitness classes etc. However there seems to have been insufficient time and energy devoted to finding entrants with only ninety people taking to the start line of the main event. 6/10.
Contact: Facebook was used extensively, through their more than one uncoordinated pages. Prime example being the start time for the main event was 8:00 pm on one page and 8:30 on another. 6/10.
Catagories: The most ridiculous and bizarre set up. The main event was male/Female Open Class ONLY, the introduction event was Open, Veteran and Senior Veteran. 2/10.
Value of entry: At RM300 the price would have been acceptable had the event been well run 16/20.
Race registration and kit collection: Collection point, ease of collection: Race day kit collection was the right way to do this as everyone needed to check in their bike. The organisation was not good as there was no queuing system put in place and those who were registering participants were just serving whoever pushed their way to the front, I hasten to add the guy who tried it with me got told how to queue up in no uncertain terms. 14/20.
44/70
Race site Facilities:
Venue, space and amenities: Adequate for the small turn out 8/10.
Toilets facilities: Good for the small number that turned up, had there been the 3000 they were claiming it would have been a different storey. 10/10.
Bike Park and security: Being amongst the early arrivals I had the privilege of ‘discussing’ how security should be conducted. When I checked my bike in there was NO SECURITY, I walked in without anyone questioning or checking. I placed my bike on the ‘rack’ and walked out again, then returned with a friend and left with my helmet, gloves and lamps, again no one checked a thing. After a severe dressing down they began to at least show some concern for our bikes.
There was not much in the way of thought gone into how the bike park would work, for example you were allocated a rack number which was a sticker on your bib, that’s it. Imagine this, check in ten-year-old rusty bike to allocated rack position, few hours later dripping with sweat check out with a brand new awesome model. Who is to know it’s not your bike?
Just one more thing, I was there to witness the first bike rack collapse, maybe because they weren’t real racks or perhaps just because they weren’t put up correctly, or far enough apart so two bikes could fit across the gap. I was told that there was a least one collapse during transition. 0/10.
Staffing and information: Limited at best. 4/10.
22/40 66/110
Care of Competitors:
Starting time, race & safety briefing and control:
The start was just another example of ineptitude. Warm up began at 19:35 and finished at 19:45, just sufficient for those who took part to cool down for the 20:00 start time.
All lined up and at 19:57 they announced, without any explanation of course, that the start time was revised to 20:15. Even with a good number of the participants either booing or laughing at them they still offered no reason.
I missed the briefing, just for the bike course apparently, not surprising as it was given to the relay riders after the main field had been sent off. I doubt that it would have helped as at this INTERNATIONAL event the briefing was given only in Malay. 0/10.
Medical facilities. Start/finish and on course: There was an ambulance that traveled the course but no fixed medical facilities. 7/10
Compulsary equipment check:
The safety reminder below shows that someone had an idea that it was dangerous not to have lights, I counted at least ten riders without one or other light and two with no lights, yet nothing was done. 0/10
Safety Reminder: It is compulsory to have light/blinker on your bicycle to make sure you are safe on the night road @ cyberjaya!
7/30
THE RACE.
Organisation:
Course management:
There were far too many dangerous elements to the course. None of the course was closed to traffic and in parts you had to cross lines of moving traffic on both the run and bike routes. This was made even worse by there being insufficient marshals to control the traffic. That said, the marshals themselves, for the most part, did a sterling job in difficult circumstances. Also, apart from one officer who seemed not to know that he was there to stop the cars from hitting the participants rather than to stop the runners from interfering with the traffic flow, the police were a god send.
Add a U turn at a busy T junction with just one officer there and I think you can get the traffic situation.
Unmarked pot holes and open drains on the bike course added some interest to proceedings. 8/30.
Course design and enjoyment factor: Excellent – Very High - High – Med – Low (subjective) 13/20.
Marshaling: See above for course marshals. 6/15.
Feed stations: I feel there were sufficient in number but again due to insufficient staffing they didn’t work well. Two people cannot fill cups and feed runners. They were barely able to do more than keep up a supply of filled cups. As there was water and Isotonic you had to stop to check what you were picking up, it’s not good poring Lucozade over your head to cool down! Again, those on duty did their utmost to do a good job and were as cheerful as they could be given they were rushed off their feet. 11/15.
38/80 111/220
POST RACE.
Finish line: The food selection was banana or no banana. After crossing the finish line you just needed to wander around until you found someone who knew where to go for your finishers shirt, as there were no signs nor sign of anyone to tell you. Once you collected your shirt it was back to the banana stool as they had the medals hidden behind the bananas. 2/10.
Resting and cool down areas: Good – Sufficient – Lacking. There was a massage tent. 7/10.
Finishing information: Just wanted to get away! Therefore no marking.
There was a prize draw? I am not saying it did not happen but if it did take place at 10:30 as advertised the PA system must have broken down.
9/20 120/240
AFTER EVENT
Results: 20/20. Thanks to Check Point Spot this event’s score has been boosted.
Post event communication: Good – Limited – None. Basically, all the organisers have done is congratulate themselves. They have not addressed any of the complaints or negative feed back. 0/10.
20/30 Grand Total 140/280 giving an overall score for this event of 50.0%
COMMENTS: Nothing much to say other than this is most certainly the very worst organised event I have ever attended, and they promised so much.
Would I return to this event: No – Unlikely – Possibly – Yes
Happy Running and Cycling.
When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
My Personal Race:
3:02:46
28th. of 90 Overall.
My race was uneventful, thankfully!
Given my enforced layoff and that I was riding my bike for just the second time I was well pleased with the outcome.
I have learnt one big lesson, I am not a good cyclist, I am not a great runner, but I try as hard as I can.
