Penang Bridge International Marathon PBIM 2008

Despite a very short time to plan and organise this event, the organiser did manage to put up a good show.

The major complain is the shortage of water along the way for the women 25KM and most of the Full Marathon runners. The 25KM male runners and all the 10KM runners should have much complaints.

There will be many people writing reports with lots of complain but I will trying to be different looking at the bright side. Since I was not personally affected by the shortcomings of the organiser, and indeed I am very much satisfied compare to last year. The good things were:

1. The collection of Bibs was very, very smooth although you did not have the choice for the right size shirt (This also happened in a more renown race like Singapore International Marathon 2008).

2. It is a very good idea to allow Fun Run to be registered during the Bib collection (when you have friends go along and last minute decide to be part of the event).

3. Good atmosphere as a race event, it is much more carnival like compare to the KLIM.

4. The races started (almost) on-time, should have no complaint from any runner.

5. Although the reporting was not planned & done well, the finishing is commendable. The finishers get their medals immediately after the run without having the trouble to go through a long queue (No comment on the quality of the medal).

6. The winners verification and prices were giving away before 9 am. All the international runners must be very happy (many of them won the prices).

7. The lucky draw was conducted very smoothly with winning numbers displayed in the "Ultra" big screen.

8. The results for all categories were published early Monday morning (the next day after he race. However only the 15 winners were published and I would see any possibility for them to publish results for other runners since they were not using the chip-based system.

9 Their web site was frequently updated prior and after the event, well done the IT team from the organising committee.

My race report will be posted soon!