By Suchada Tupchai
The Pattaya Marathon is done and dusted for another
year. Thousands of runners took part in this international event. It was
bigger and more colourful and had more overseas participants than in any
other year. Yet the overriding opinion of those taking part has been less
than favourable. With over 10 years of experience, the marathon this year
was rife with failure, something you would not expect from an
international race of this calibre.
Firstly, there was the change of start/finish points,
supposedly under the concept “Morning smells of the ocean”. The aim
was to introduce a new area of the city to encourage more visitors.
However, this “new” area was too small to handle the number of people.
Then, after all the years of handling the technical requirements of the
event, there was a power failure at the start, which sent runners into
mass confusion and caused delays. To pile insult onto ineptitude, the lack
of data collation saw many runners and those trying to obtain results of
the various race categories being left floundering in virtual darkness
(not unlike the start) as organisers failed to maintain a central
collection point. This in turn led to an even slower prize presentation
process, creating havoc as organisers struggled to keep some sort of order
throughout the morning.
The majority of participants voiced their disapproval
of the new venue, claiming that the traditional start/finish line at Soi
4-5 was perfectly acceptable and that the organisation this year was less
than presentable. Clearly, the private company hired to organise the event
along with the city required more readiness, professionalism and the
ability to deal with a variety of hiccups.
Many runners commented on the route change, saying it
was more difficult than previous marathons. Changes to the shorter routes
took place only days prior to the event. The course saw marathon runners
climb Pratamnak Hill and down along the new waterside road in the final
stage approaching the finish line. Numerous people lost their steam on
this stretch and had to be carried off by officials and medical staff.
The Pattaya Marathon has become a tradition, bringing
in runners and visitors from around the country and the globe to
participate. As such, it would be appropriate to improve and move forward
in hosting such a large race, not take a step or two backwards.
With the bad taste of failure in their mouths, the city
administrators should have learned a valuable lesson. There needs to be a
very confident and organised stewardship of this international event next
time or it might well acquire a tarnished image it won’t be able to
overcome.
This would cause great damage to a high quality, high
profile sporting fixture that should be a showcase for all the good things
about this tourist city we call home.
