Four Times Postponement

Note: To all runners who are going to Kuantan for the Kuantan TC Run (on Sunday 21 October 2007) organizes by Pacesetters Club, wishing you a safe journey, enjoy your stay and have a good run.

I heard that 500 medals will be presented to the runners. So, run a little faster to secure the medal. Otherwise, try again next time.

Chan Wing Kai, Pacesetters Club Photographer, will be there taking photos.
.
++++++++++++++++++++++
,

“What?! The two running events at Kuantan Beach are clashing!” I exclaimed when I read the email sent from Tan Wah Sing, Kuantan Area Team Leader of Pacesetters Club, on Monday 13 August 07.

The Kuantan Beach Run organizes by Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan (“MPK”) has been postponed from 29 July to 19 August, and now to 21 October. The worst thing that could have happened is that it clashes with the Kuantan TC (Teluk Chempedak) Run organized by Pacesetters Club, the date which has been firmed up long time ago.

I empathize with Tan Wah Sing when he wrote in his email: “We will have to re-schedule our event and a new date shall be announced in due course.” It is most unfortunate that MPK postpones to a later date that clash with another event. Isn’t it that there are many Sundays and why choose that Sunday?

A few minutes later, I received an email from another runner in the same email circulation group. He suggested that Pacesetters Club should not change the event date.

Immediately, I log on to the Pacesetters Club Event Calendar to check on the Kuantan Beach Run. Since the webpage is maintained by me, navigating through that page is fairly easy for me.

A check with the website, I was excited to see that MPK issued a notification below to postpone it to 20 October – on Saturday which means the two events do not clash!!
.
Pemakluman Kepada Semua Yang Terlibat Dengan Larian Pantai,

Larian Pantai Akan Ditunda Pada 20 Oktober 2007.

Sebarang Masalah Dan Kesulitan Amatlah Dikesali.

So, I replied highlighting the two different dates. On a lighter note, I said that for those serious runners, after running the Kuantan Beach run, they can then run the Pacesetters Kuantan TC Run the next day.

I may think that the wise man in MPK would probably understand the synergy effect of pulling the crowd when two events are staged on the same weekend.

Since it is not usual to stage runs on Saturday, my concern is that MPK actually meant Sunday 21 October and not 20 October.

Days later, I received emails from other runners pledging their support to the Pacesetters event.

A few days later, I received one email from MPK sent to Pacesetters Club Webmaster. (Note: emails that are sent to this mailbox are directed to me). To my horror, it is postponed to 21 October 2007. Wow! Wow! The two events clash now.

Immediately, I log on to Kuantan Beach Run website again to take a look. And to my surprised, it is now changed to 27 October 2007, the following Saturday after Pacesetter’s Club Kuantan TC Run.

This is quite an uncommon development that a running event has been postponed four times from the original 29 July to 27 October.

Though it is unavoidable for an organizer to postpone a run when the response is not encouraging, it is indeed frustrating to the runners. They would have planned and confirmed the hotel arrangement, especially for outstation runners.

As one runner said, when the organizer postpones the event twice, the organizer may as well drop the run. Let us hope that Saturday 27 October is a final date. And if the response is still not favourable, no one will be disappointed for an event that has postponed four times and it is still not forthcoming.

Written by KC