2012 Best Friend Run (10km –
Women’s)
OVERALL MARK: 55.0%
(Would Not Recommend)
HELD: April 8th, 2012.
IN BRIEF: The Best Friend Run is a smaller event marketed towards running with friends and family. There were 2km, 5km and 10km options. I ran the competitive 10km and finished with a time of 50:22.
COST: I paid $45 for the 10k run. This price included a singlet, pair of sunglasses and a few vouchers. Other than the singlet, the finisher medal is the only other thing included in the price. A finisher t-shirt was listed on the website, but this turned out to be an error. There was no finisher t-shirt, just the singlet. The singlet design was ok, but I personally didn’t like it and won’t wear it again. I prefer when the singlets are made by a sport company, rather than just ordered in bulk and screen printed. Good examples are tops from 2XU for the 2XU run and tops from Mizuno for the Mizuno Mt Faber and Wave runs. This race was at the upper limits in terms of cost and I don’t think it was worth the price. 4/10.
RACE TRACK: Completely sealed road race with flat surfaces at East Coast Park. The race route was a 5km loop (2.5km out and back). The 5km runners did the loop once and the 10km runners completed it twice. There were distance markers at 1km, 2km, 3km and 4km. The 5km mark was the finish line, so it was pretty easy to tell the distance. The distance overall was a little short according to my Garmin watch, which registered 9.7km. Probably not too much of a problem for most people, but as I was trying to break 50 mins for the 10km, my time looks better than it actually is. The route at East Coast Park was not closed to the public. This is understandable, but considering the cost, not ideal. As there were not too many people, the route was not too congested. Overall, the route was OK. 7/10.
AND WE’RE RACING!: The first thing that happened was the race started early. The 10km race was supposed to begin at 8:30am, but they started it at 8:20am. This is incredibly bad organisation. The times listed should be accurate and allow people to plan their race accordingly. The 5km races started before the 10km race, which is unusual. The 10km racers caught up to the trailing 5km runners. I bypassed a lot of 5km runners/walkers and also lapped some of the slower 10km runners. For this particular race I understand that people walk or run slowly together as half of the event is a friendly fun run. On the good side, the lower amount of participants meant that it was quite easy to pass other people. On the bad side, the route was not closed, so we had to be on the lookout for other runners, walkers, dogs, and bikes. 5/10.
PITSTOPS: There were 2 drink stations serving water. The first was at about the 2km point and the second was at the 2.5km turnaround point. The way that the drink stations were organised meant that there was a 4.5km stretch for the 10km runners without drinks. The water stations were set a little far back from the track. There was water at the finish line. The water was served in 100 PLUS cups. As I love 100 PLUS, I was disappointed to find that there was only water, depite the advertising on the cups. The Milo truck was there and drinks were readily available. 6/10.
ORGANISATION (PRE-RACE DAY): Communication prior to the race was quite poor. The race pack pick-up location was unknown until about a week before the race. The first I heard about the location was on the Facebook group. The race pack pick up location was accessible by public transport (although I did get lost based on google map direction), but was really far away. The timing of the pick-up was between 11am and 3pm, a very narrow window considering the short notice and the holiday weekend. There was no race guide in the race pack, so I had to check on the start times and start location on the website. 4/10.
ORGANISATION (RACE DAY): The race start timing was incorrect, so again, poor organisation. Baggage deposit took about 1 min pick-up also only took 1 min. Although the baggage deposit timing was excellent, one bad thing was using small plastic bags to write big numbers on. I find this pretty environmentally unfriendly. The carnival area was small and the participant numbers were low, so it was easy to see where everything was. Most of the volunteers were enthusiastic, but some looked bored. This seems to be a pretty common theme at all the races- a few happy, encouraging volunteers and the rest are playing with their phones, uninterested in the race. 7/10.
TIMING: My timing was accurate and matched my watch. One surprising and completely unacceptable issue was that the prizes for the men’s and women’s races were combined, meaning that the only the top 3 overall won prizes. As a female runner, this is pretty disappointing. I don’t think that I am close to winning a prize, but at least there should be something to aim for. The race results were released the next day. The released race results are in an excel spreadsheet and show overall placing. I finished 30/329 participants. Again, as the timing is overall, I have no idea how I ranked compared to other women. On the spreadsheet only some of the runners have the gender listed, so I can’t even sort by gender. The spreadsheet also lists the runner’s NRIC. This number is confidential and it is completely unacceptable for it to be on the list. The column should be deleted by the organiser before posting on the website. 5/10.
RACE KIT: The race kit contained a singlet, a pair of cheap sunglasses and some vouchers. This was listed as being worth $50. I did not like the singlet personally, but it was OK. I wont use the cheap sunglasses. Vouchers for facials ‘worth $180’ are useless to me, especially as these vouchers require you to spend additional money to get the benefit. There was no race guide in the race kit. The medallion was a reasonable design, but not as nice as most other runs. 6/10.
SUMMARY: The actual run was OK, but I think the organisation and communication leaves a lot to be desired. Honestly, for the amount this race costs and for what you get in return, I will not do this race again. Next year I would rather run with my Best Friends at East Coast Park and use the $45 I save on entry fee to treat them to a Starbuck’s coffee!
OVERALL MARK: 55.0%
(Would Not Recommend)
HELD: April 8th, 2012.
IN BRIEF: The Best Friend Run is a smaller event marketed towards running with friends and family. There were 2km, 5km and 10km options. I ran the competitive 10km and finished with a time of 50:22.
COST: I paid $45 for the 10k run. This price included a singlet, pair of sunglasses and a few vouchers. Other than the singlet, the finisher medal is the only other thing included in the price. A finisher t-shirt was listed on the website, but this turned out to be an error. There was no finisher t-shirt, just the singlet. The singlet design was ok, but I personally didn’t like it and won’t wear it again. I prefer when the singlets are made by a sport company, rather than just ordered in bulk and screen printed. Good examples are tops from 2XU for the 2XU run and tops from Mizuno for the Mizuno Mt Faber and Wave runs. This race was at the upper limits in terms of cost and I don’t think it was worth the price. 4/10.
RACE TRACK: Completely sealed road race with flat surfaces at East Coast Park. The race route was a 5km loop (2.5km out and back). The 5km runners did the loop once and the 10km runners completed it twice. There were distance markers at 1km, 2km, 3km and 4km. The 5km mark was the finish line, so it was pretty easy to tell the distance. The distance overall was a little short according to my Garmin watch, which registered 9.7km. Probably not too much of a problem for most people, but as I was trying to break 50 mins for the 10km, my time looks better than it actually is. The route at East Coast Park was not closed to the public. This is understandable, but considering the cost, not ideal. As there were not too many people, the route was not too congested. Overall, the route was OK. 7/10.
AND WE’RE RACING!: The first thing that happened was the race started early. The 10km race was supposed to begin at 8:30am, but they started it at 8:20am. This is incredibly bad organisation. The times listed should be accurate and allow people to plan their race accordingly. The 5km races started before the 10km race, which is unusual. The 10km racers caught up to the trailing 5km runners. I bypassed a lot of 5km runners/walkers and also lapped some of the slower 10km runners. For this particular race I understand that people walk or run slowly together as half of the event is a friendly fun run. On the good side, the lower amount of participants meant that it was quite easy to pass other people. On the bad side, the route was not closed, so we had to be on the lookout for other runners, walkers, dogs, and bikes. 5/10.
PITSTOPS: There were 2 drink stations serving water. The first was at about the 2km point and the second was at the 2.5km turnaround point. The way that the drink stations were organised meant that there was a 4.5km stretch for the 10km runners without drinks. The water stations were set a little far back from the track. There was water at the finish line. The water was served in 100 PLUS cups. As I love 100 PLUS, I was disappointed to find that there was only water, depite the advertising on the cups. The Milo truck was there and drinks were readily available. 6/10.
ORGANISATION (PRE-RACE DAY): Communication prior to the race was quite poor. The race pack pick-up location was unknown until about a week before the race. The first I heard about the location was on the Facebook group. The race pack pick up location was accessible by public transport (although I did get lost based on google map direction), but was really far away. The timing of the pick-up was between 11am and 3pm, a very narrow window considering the short notice and the holiday weekend. There was no race guide in the race pack, so I had to check on the start times and start location on the website. 4/10.
ORGANISATION (RACE DAY): The race start timing was incorrect, so again, poor organisation. Baggage deposit took about 1 min pick-up also only took 1 min. Although the baggage deposit timing was excellent, one bad thing was using small plastic bags to write big numbers on. I find this pretty environmentally unfriendly. The carnival area was small and the participant numbers were low, so it was easy to see where everything was. Most of the volunteers were enthusiastic, but some looked bored. This seems to be a pretty common theme at all the races- a few happy, encouraging volunteers and the rest are playing with their phones, uninterested in the race. 7/10.
TIMING: My timing was accurate and matched my watch. One surprising and completely unacceptable issue was that the prizes for the men’s and women’s races were combined, meaning that the only the top 3 overall won prizes. As a female runner, this is pretty disappointing. I don’t think that I am close to winning a prize, but at least there should be something to aim for. The race results were released the next day. The released race results are in an excel spreadsheet and show overall placing. I finished 30/329 participants. Again, as the timing is overall, I have no idea how I ranked compared to other women. On the spreadsheet only some of the runners have the gender listed, so I can’t even sort by gender. The spreadsheet also lists the runner’s NRIC. This number is confidential and it is completely unacceptable for it to be on the list. The column should be deleted by the organiser before posting on the website. 5/10.
RACE KIT: The race kit contained a singlet, a pair of cheap sunglasses and some vouchers. This was listed as being worth $50. I did not like the singlet personally, but it was OK. I wont use the cheap sunglasses. Vouchers for facials ‘worth $180’ are useless to me, especially as these vouchers require you to spend additional money to get the benefit. There was no race guide in the race kit. The medallion was a reasonable design, but not as nice as most other runs. 6/10.
SUMMARY: The actual run was OK, but I think the organisation and communication leaves a lot to be desired. Honestly, for the amount this race costs and for what you get in return, I will not do this race again. Next year I would rather run with my Best Friends at East Coast Park and use the $45 I save on entry fee to treat them to a Starbuck’s coffee!
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