Springboard 16km - EPIC FAIL!

What is it with me and out of town races?

From what I considered as the WORST RACE last April 2012 via TNF Baguio 22km, comes this road race from new Race organizers PURE CONCEPT, and which I now considered as the WORST ROAD RACE for 2012!

Congratulations guys! I do hope you keep your record and other race organizers do not follow your very bad example!

At the start, it looks interesting enough: a new race in Sucat so it was a new route for me and Per as we never ran here before, it also offered finisher shirts and finisher medals to 16km finishers.

But then on the registration date when we paid for our entry fees at Chris Sports Glorietta, they gave us a flimsy bib no., a singlet and a small piece of paper that showed the race map.

By the way, the race map for both the 5km and 16km races were EXACTLY the same! How is that even possible? But no worries, as race organizers changed the race course at the last minute (more on this later). There were no brown envelopes to put these things in or a flyer to show the race details (venue, gun start, etc.) and I had to search online again the night before the race to get the relevant information. At the back of my mind, I already had a bad feeling about this but nothing to do but to continue for this event as it was paid for. Mistake #1!

Per and I got to the race venue with ample time to spare but it took a long time before the 16km was released from the starting line. I think there was a 15-minute delay from the Gun Start time! A big no-no too for a road race! Mistake #2!

I took my time slowly as I was supposed to do a long run that morning but with the sun coming out quickly, it's becoming harder to run here. I skipped a few water stations as I didn't feel thirsty yet.

Come 5km I was ready to stop by at the water station and lo and behold, they had ran out of plastic cups! Wow! That quickly already!!! Mistake #3!

I heard a runner complain about it and the guy manning the water station said he had called it in and they would deliver some new plastic cups. So I continued running with the optimistic view that the next water station would have the needed plastic cups. It never happened! I passed two to three more water stations and all were out of cups too! IT WAS CRAZY! I can accept one water station running out of supplies but ALL water stations?? This was unheard of! Mistake # 4, 5, 6 !!!

I didn't want to die from dehydration so I drank from lids and from "tabo" instead and just kept going. Nothing else to do. A lot of people quit the race and just went to the finish line. I kept going.

As mentioned earlier, the race organizers changed the route and these smart guys did it by making it Two loops - when there were no cups on the first loop alone! Mistake # 7, 8, 9, 10! More drinking from "tabo" for me. Some runners just did the first loop and quit this race, saying it wasn't worth it anymore. A lot of runners ran with a water bottle in hand. God, I envied them!!

The marshals left their stations too, I guess thinking they had nothing to do as there were no plastic cups left. No marshals were there to guide 16km runners to keep running straight instead of making the final turnaround so a lot of runners who wanted to finish the race ended with just 10km or less due to lack of directions. Mistake # 11.

No km markers as well, which I didn't expect anyway. The final distance for 16km, going through all the proper turns, loops, etc. was a measly 14.21km! Mistake # 12!

As for the 5km race, the final distance for them was a huge 5.77km! Mistake # 13!

Finisher shirts were out of sizes too, mostly L and XXL only. Luckily, I got my right size and I got the medal too. The only two good things from this race.

Pure Concepts - please run an actual race before organizing the next one! I'm afraid what you will do next! You need to prove yourselves to the running community!

With 13 big mistakes (your favorite lucky number?), I take back what I said earlier and now give you the crown for the WORST RACE (road or trail) for 2012! Give yourselves a big slap on the face for me. You deserved it... ;P