It’s tough to be at the receiving end of criticisms and complaints specially if you’re the Race Director of a major race that didn’t live up to expectations, even if it wasn’t the RD’s fault at all. At last Sunday’s Brooks Happy Run, the 15k runners who were already lined-up at the start were told there would be a slight delay before they would be fired-off. Five minutes had passed, then 10 and the runners became restless. Doc Marvs and i were standing just outside the starting line waiting for these runners to start so we could also prepare and line up for our 10k and 5k races which were to follow.
Fifteen minutes had passed and the runners were beginning to get incensed. I was looking at the 2 DJs nervously as they were continuously harping on other things to entertain them which only further agitated the runners. They should have just given an explanation why the delay was taking so long.
Little did we know that the cause of delay was happening a few kilometers from the starting area. It seems that the group which was contracted to deliver the water and set-up the water stations arrived late and had to scramble to get these ready before the runners arrived. This was relayed to us by one of the Brooks organizers, Julius who had just arrived from the area and hurry back to the starting line.
Race Director Thumbie Remigio had to make that crucial decision of delaying the start as he didn’t want the first wave of runners to reach Buendia Avenue without the water stations set-up first. So there. Definitely no fault of Thumbie’s but the delay have a trickle-down effect and it showed during the race. I was told that the water stations at the 15k route were set-up at irregular intervals, some of them had even run dry and marshals were not in their proper places.
Good thing for us 5k runners, there was nary a hitch on our run and except for the late start, we had adequate supply of water, markers were present and the marshals were at crucial positions of the route. I’m sure Thumbie will be able to improve from here as he has delivered well-received races in the past. Here are some pictures of the race:
Calm before the storm
The 15k runners were waiting patiently for the gun start
Crowd of runners have now swelled up to the tail end where the 10k runners already positioned themselves
Not even the banters of DJ Chloe helped in pacifying the runners as Doc Marvs, Jay Em and myself waited for our event to start
Some friends from the race, not one but three!
JAZZRUNNER 