Putrajaya International Triathlon 2012

So I did the Putrajaya International Triathlon last weekend.  It was a rather last minute event so not many people signed up.  Personally, I was skeptical about how well I would do as I hadn't been able to properly train for the past month or so, juggling school work, committee work and finals.

Crossing the line in an unofficial time of 2:07:11, I was pretty happy.  Seeing as I'd never done such distances back to back compounded by the lack of training, I actually performed better than I did at Desaru.  Unfortunately, the rest of the field was rather experienced and I came in around the bottom quarter. :(

My only issue with the course was the cycle route.  Why go on the highway?  Putrajaya has a very complete motorcycle lane system.  Why didn't the organizers use that?  They really should have.  On top of that, there were no signs and not enough marshals so at times, we were winging it, hoping they would place marshals at crucial exit points.  But at the most crucial point, the exit to get off the highway & back to the venue, there was no marshal.  Some riders only overshot by several meters, others went up to an additional 7km.  I got lucky because I somewhat know Putrajaya so I didn't miss the exit.  It did kill my momentum though as some of the riders confused me.  I attacked and then I braked on an uphill, completely killing all the momentum. Gah.

The organizers, however, need a lot of work. First of all, on the morning of the event, things like buoys were still being set up.  To me, that's a big no no.  Once people have arrived, important things like path markers, transition zone(s), etc should have been done and ready.  And the organizers obviously failed to implement any sort of monitoring steps or methods.  It was only at Uncle Chan's suggestion the evening before did they get things like ribbons to be given to the athletes.  Even that, they gave out ONE ribbon, and a HAIRBAND. Yes, a hairband. -,-

On top of that, the volunteers/marshals were somewhat mediocre.  The girl responsible for waving athletes to do 2 rounds was so meek & barely audible.  A number of tired athletes forgot & overshot & the girl barely did anything.  It was the supporters who shouted & reminded the athlete.  & I noticed some of the people who were running around managing the event were wearing slippers.  You're organizing a sports event & you need to run around & you wear slippers?  And it wasn't even the flipflop kind.  It was the leather, strap over the instep kind of slipper.  -______-

At the finish line, there was not enough isotonic drinks, no sort of wet towel.  They did give us fried rice but I honestly would've preferred a banana and a can of 100 Plus.

The organizers need to step up.  They were successful in securing an awesome venue, they were able to get many police marshals to help out, they had the support of Triathlon Malaysia!  So much potential.  Do that, & more people will come.

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