There is a rumbling of dissatisfaction among race organizers and participants alike in the current running “boom” that is sweeping the whole country.
Runners complain of poor management, of organizers not providing enough water stations, safety measures, unsatisfactory goody bags and other amenities despite the high and exorbitant entry fees paid to join the event.
Local runners also express their objection to local organizers allowing foreign runners like the Kenyans to run off with all the prize money.
Kenyans, these Filipino runners say, are professionals exercising their profession when they run in marathons, ergo, should obtain a work permit from the Bureau of Immigration.
Last March, Kenyans were banned from participating in the 75th Araw ng Dabaw Phoenix Marathon Takbo sa KinaBOOKasan because the race organizers claimed that several runners complained it is “unfair for locals to race with Kenyans as they have been running as their source of income”.
A similar sentiment was expressed by local runners from Cebu who want the City Council to issue an edict keeping away the Kenyans from the Cebu City Marathon “following the often clean sweep of podium finishes by the running band of Kenyans in even the smallest of Cebu races starting in the half of 2011…In this year’s edition of the Cebu City Marathon held Jan. 8, not one from Cebu’s top male marathoners even bothered to run…knowing they would be shout out from the Top 10,” the Cebu Daily News reported.
In the Hapalua half-marathon in Hawaii, “…the two elite Kenyan marathoners will have to come from behind if they want to win the event’s $5,000 first prize. Hand-picked group of local top athletes will be given a head start with the women starting at 5:42 a.m. and the men at 5:51. Prize money will be distributed based on the rank order of finish regardless of gender. Is this the start of a trend?”
Mulling over this issue, with the Dumaguete Adventure Marathon just six months away and concerned of the need to raise almost half-a-million pesos f or prizes alone, I found a possible solution in reading an article online titled “Five reasons why the Boston Marathon sold out in 8 hours.” (There’s just too many people joining marathons!)
Since the major concern of marathon race organizers is to have as many participants as possible, and there are thousands out there eager to run a marathon, why put up prize money for the few among the multitude who merely join for the “fun[ds] of it”?
My point is, races of 5km distances or shorter are called “fun runs”. Yet, ask anyone who had completed a half-marathon or a full 42km marathon and they will tell you that it was “fun”. They like the experience, the thrill of achieving what was once considered the “ultimate challenge”.
But that was years ago when a marathon finisher was considered a “special” achiever.
Nowadays, finishing a marathon may just be part of the challenge in adopting a wellness lifestyle.
It was only in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that women were allowed to run the marathon. Thirty years later, here in our midst in the University Town, we have eight fair ladies running 50km ultramarathons.
I started a discussion among race organizers on whether prize money should continue to be a major consideration in marathon staging. I suggested that funds allotted to prize money could be better used to ensure adequate provisions for amenities which makes running the race more joyful and stress-free.
This means putting up more water and sponging stations, energy drinks, bananas and snacks, better traffic control, portalets, and most of all, a sense of non-commercialization of the event by lowering the entry fees.
The Board of Runnex Club which manages the Quezon City International Marathon, one of the major events in the country, will be discussing this proposal this weekend with their sponsor, the San Miguel Development Corp. With this development, I am sure that other race organizers all over the country will begin to take a look at their motives in organizing marathon races.
I point out to these fellow race organizers the Dumaguete Adventure Marathon. From the very start of staging the event seven years ago, we had adopted an advocacy which is rice conservation as a strategy to meet one of the Millennium Development Goals: the eradication of hunger and poverty.
I advise the marathon organizers for all of us to adopt a race organizing philosophy: marathons with advocacy sans prize money. I tell them to recognize as podium finishers those multitude of fun marathoners, and not the minuscule few who join the race for the “fun[ds] of it.”
We await further developments on this proposal that could make marathons an acceptable add-on to a vigorous lifestyle.
