Post-GCM 2011 Scenes

Here are more photographs, mainly after the Gold Coast Marathon 2011. Spectators will be directed towards their recovery stations, and then collect their medals and t-shorts, before they join the post-race festivities.

Immediately upon crossing the line, volunteers offer you water and oranges. This volunteer was a cheerful and inviting. By they way, I polished the remainder of my High-5 energy gels in my single dispensing-bottle.

Before you leave the finishing-point, you will collect your well-earned race-tee and beautiful medal. 

Volunteers assist you in taking your race-chip (actually a mini-credit card) from your laces. My volunteer struggled to get my quick-laces off, but ironically, it took a while.

The Race Pacers (from PatCarollOnline.com) were brilliant! Spot-on in their timing. They were the selfless, real leaders during the run. If you got a PB, you would thank them profusely.

The sponsor tent: you wait to be offered stuff, or you help yourself. No worries! I love their abundant attitude - not much abuse by runners and their families to take more than needed. Sponsor, SunCorp Bank gave stuff away, and we sat on the large groundsheet for a while, enjoying the 'live' band, short-but-to-the-point awards ceremony, and 'live' race report on the giant screen. Great coverage of a state-organised, but international event.

We could not resist taking this shot of the birds, who were painfully shy and attempted to slip away.


Photo-credits: Melina Chan, 2011

Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2011 Report (Part 2)

Congratulations to Singapore’s top-2 runners and triathletes, Mok Yin Ren and Ashley Liew for their splendid finish. Mok placed 13^th overall in a fast and fierce field, hungry for breaking the course and world record. A bonus prize money of A$20,000 was available for the taking should either records be broken. The top Australian runner won a bonus for breaking the course record on his birthday - imagine that!

I was pleasantly surprised to see sport-medicine specialist and author, Dr Ben Tan at the start-line. I heard that he narrowly missed the sub-3 hour ceiling – Congratulations to him for his attempt!

A massive shout out to the many Singaporean and Malaysian runners who braved the cold weather in Brisbane to run their 21K and marathons! In particular, we like to acknowledge Team FatBird, including Marathon Mohan, Danny, Charlotte (fifth in the Sundown Ultramarathon) and Winston – some of them completed the Sundown Ultra-Marathon 100K held a week ago. Also, a special mention is made to Wen Long of Safra Running Club who earned a sub-3 hour PB and a Boston Qualifier.

The race-fair was well represented by retailers, distributors, body care and coaching services. You could get assessments of your spinal alignment, or muscle weakness. Marathon Couple (Sue and Andrew O’Brien) were there to speak and autograph their book; the husband-and-wife team completed eight marathons over eight weeks over eight continents. Perhaps the organizers of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon can bring them in for our race fair? Otherwise, you have representatives from Skins, 2XU, Endura, Garmin (with the new watch model), and more speaking on-stage or attending to your needs at their booths. The final booth was raising funds for Japan earthquake victims, and many runners did their fair share of charitable assistance.

The Gold Coast Marathon was well run (no pun), as I expected from the two Ironman triathlons I completed in Western Australia. There was huge coverage of the race, with great spectator support along the route. There was no mad rush for the start-line, as each runner had an electronic card (champion chip) the size of a mini-credit card.

The 21K and full marathon routes did not cross, thus there was no confusion or annoying clashes of a dichotomy of runners. Runners were respectful, and both official and non-official pacers shared their commitment to assist new and seasoned runners along. I like to thank a runner with shocking-pink hair who led a small group of us along, until he bonked on the 32K mark. Up till them he was holding a 13kph-plus pace and encouraging runners along. I will find out and let you know his name soon.

The volunteers were ever eager to help us runners continue; I was one of the few who stood beside them when I drank. They were not in the least bit concerned when I encroached upon their personal space. We are fortunate to have volunteers to ensure we complete our selfish, personal tasks!

The course is, generally, flat with a few small flyovers – demanding on tired legs, if you hit the wall earlier. The cold weather (for us equatorial inhabitants) may lead us to over-dressing in layers; I may have over-done it this time, and felt hot towards the third-quarter of my marathon. Once you are warmed up, t-shirt and shorts/tights would be adequate. We were fortunate to have a relative absence of wind-chill, or else layering up would have been relevant.

The opening, motivational speech before flag-off was memorable. It went something like this: ‘So, you want to be like Pheidippides…run from Marathon to Athens…and died!’ That drew laughter all round, and set a positive and light-hearted approach to our golden quest for metal. I came home at 903th place (out of 5086 participants; and 93th out of 390 in my age group) in 3:32:36 - not a second BQ, but it will do for now.  

Lead Your Team With the Basics

Managers and supervisors are who they are because they modeled from their predecessors. However, some of these on-the-job, behaviors cannot be tolerated and condoned, as they are out-dated and inhumane.

If you are a volunteer leader, make sure that motivational factors like the basics are delivered. Nobody can work indefinitely without fatigue and boredom setting in. Do take care of your staff’s meal, drink and bathroom needs. Ensure that there are periods of rest for staff; schedule this in, and rotate the staff.

You may flog a staff with ridiculous demands at work; you certainly cannot with a volunteer as they can quit any time. If a full-time staff or contract staff leaves your team, your team may be short-handed.

Banish your thoughts about the roles of superiors and subordinates – this is outmoded and arrogant thinking. Nobody needs to kowtow to you, and act subservient just because you have the label of ‘superior’ on the performance appraisal form. Submissiveness and servant-like behavior limits people’s potential to perform at their best. It also constricts their thinking and creativity to solve problems.

Review your beliefs and values about treating people. You cannot violate universal values like fairness, care and consideration without facing the consequences. Treat people the way YOU want to be treated, and your will stand out as a leader.