A Much-Improved BDO Race for Life

Last year, when I blogged about my BDO Race4Life experience, I listed down a number of improvement areas that the organizers should focus on the next time they put up a race. This year's edition definitely improved, much to the runners' delight.

BDO Race4Life 2013 offered 21km as the longest category (as opposed to 2012's 15km), which is of course what I registered in. As I and my running buddy Ryan arrived at the assembly area, we were relieved to see that it was not too crowded as we expected it to be. Game plan is just to do an LSD; no race mode on this event.

Assembly area photo courtesy of Lestsky

Race notes:
- Gun start on time. Race started at exactly 4am as published
- Biggest improvement from last year is hydration. More than enough hydration on all stations which is what runners need on a hot summer race day.
- Kilometer markers all visible along the race route.
- Roving ambulances to ensure runners' safety and timely response in case of emergency.
- Finisher medal much better than last year's plastic one
- Quick release of race results
- Improvement area: Merging of all race categories at the final stretch of the race. Way too crowded with lots of walkers from the lower categories making it difficult for 21k runners to squeeze their way in.

Final stretch!

Thanks to Without Limits/Proactive running this year's edition, they really took note of focus areas which Tri N Motion failed to deliver last year as the organizer. It's a bit of a let down that some runners avoided joining this year based on feedback from the 2012 event (which is unfair since the race organizer changed this year). Hopefully more runners will join next year through positive word of mouth.

* medal photo courtesy of pinoyfitness website