Adidas KOTR, A Milestone Race

The Adidas KOTR 2008 was the first race I ever joined. It was a simple race with a good quality singlet. Back then, I went alone and left right after the race. It was right after this race that I began to take running seriously. While I do admit that I may have been somewhat unprepared for the race, I was quite disappointed with my 1 hour, 13 minute 10k performance. That was last year.

This year, I suggested the Adidas KOTR to my wife as her first race given my experience last year. I just wanted her to have a great time running so that she would be hooked as well. One day, while in Bonifacio High Street, while looking at running shoes at RUNNR, we decided to register.

I found it strange that the we weren't able to get our race kits immediately. We were told that claiming of race kits would be during the Adidas Shoe Expo at the Megatrade Hall of Megamall. I thought it would be a minor inconvenience, but then I figured it would be alright to look around. We decided to claim our kits just as Megamall opened. I thought we could easily go in, claim the kits and get out quickly. Just imagine the horror of having to wait in line for 2 hours just to claim a race kit. My son got so tired that he fell asleep as I was carrying him. Somehow, the system they devised to distribute the kits was not working.

The 21k race itself was great. The course was challenging and there were enough water stations. Best of all, I finished with a time of 2:11:18, a new PR! When I asked my wife about her race, she said that she wanted to file a protest. What?!? She then explained that although we don't have gadgets that measure distance, she felt that the route was much longer than 5k. At first I thought it may be possible for the route to be slightly longer than planned. I was later on surprised to find out that other runners were also complaining about the distance. Some even said their Garmins measured a distance of 6.45k instead of 5k. Hmmm...

It took more than a week before the results were released. Interestingly, the results were released in Facebook. Too bad if you didn't have an account. I was quite disappointed that only the results for the 21k runners seemed reliable. I heard a number of complaints from 5k and 10k runners that the results were far from what they were expecting. In some cases, many runners shared the same finish times. In many other cases, runners couldn't find their names nor their bib numbers. Perhaps somebody can explain to us why this is so.

In the end, I just wanted a great experience for my wife. For myself, I wanted to celebrate the past year in running by joining the same race that started it all. For the Adidas KOTR organizers, I hope you listen to the feedback and take steps to address them.