Marathons in Singapore

[Ender]

The pain of the volunteers, when organisers didn't listen.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ongtianhua/posts/10154887938036836?pnref=story

 

Here's a summary for the TLDR people:
1. There is insufficient manpower because volunteers who withdrew are not replenished as walk-in and replacements are disallowed this year.
2. Many volunteers are not told what they'll be doing and where they'll be until only the day itself. Even so, insufficient information was provided during then.
3. There is a severe breakdown in communication between staffs and volunteers.
4. Baggage deposit was slow because of lack of manpower and vehicles.
5. Baggage withdrawal was also slow because there's no effective system to manage the bags and they're everywhere, making it hard and slow for volunteers to find them easily.
6. Volunteers helping out in baggage withdrawal are not taken care of, resulting in some heat-related injuries.

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Dear Ironman Asia (Singapore) Volunteers Management Team,

 

Firstly, congratulations on the successful completion of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2017, regardless of if it was smooth or not. The past few months or so in planning and the few days in execution must have put a huge toll on your team.

That being said, I believe that even a 5-year-old can see that almost everything can be done a lot better. In short, what the hell are you doing? This is probably the most heavily used phrase for me in the 10 hours of duty. Nothing was going correctly from the start. Personally, I’ve never experienced this much frustration - as a leader or as a crew - in my participation in other events, as this.

To start off, who thinks it is a good idea to cease the system of allowing walk-in volunteers or getting replacements for those who withdrew? I'm not sure why do you have illusion that volunteers "are committed and responsible enough to appear for their assigned duty", but what I'm sure is that you need to wake up, open your eyes and see what is really happening. When I talked to other volunteers about this, everyone had the same reaction - laughter and disbelieve. In our years of volunteering, most of us have never encountered this situation where we have full turnout during the actual event. Let's face it, your application opened and closed early, and there are a lot of students. This means that many are unable to confirm their commitment at that point, and many (not all) of the students are here purely because of the CIP hours. Because of your decision, some teams ended up with zero crew or having no leaders to take charge of them.

I'm not sure if the decision to withhold crucial information is of any benefit to anyone. I'm in charged of 2 start point teams and I don't even know what I will be doing until the moment I received my deployment paper. I was praying in the days leading up to the event that I won't be allocated to 2 fundamentally different roles that will require me running everywhere to ensure that my crews are all in one piece. But guess what happened? One of my team is in start pen and the other is courtesy crew, assigned to take care of the shuttle bus drop-off points. You have the map, you can do the math. All spots are at least 10 minutes walk from each other, and to take care of all of them means I clocked twice my 10,000 steps even before the sky turned bright again. Thank goodness for bike sharing because I have no other modes of transport that is provided for me, and also that it's free for now or else I don't even dare to start to think how much I would have to fork out from my own pockets to pay for your inefficiency. Furthermore, without knowing my deployment beforehand means I also don't have the necessary information regarding my jobscope, without which I couldn't making advanced preparations for my work. Am I supposed to be "committed and responsible enough" to find out myself too and memorise the entire map of the area, including the locations of all the crews, the shuttle and baggage drop-off points, the start pen entrances and locations and route? Just so you know, a lot of the crews dropped out because they couldn't decide for their own safety as they're unsure of what they will be doing. You think that's fair to us?

Deployment was a nightmare as well. My first taste of the event heading in the wrong direction is when I signed in and was given a shirt of the wrong size. What is the purpose of asking for our shirt sizes if we're not going to be given the correct size anyway. I asked for XXS and I was given S - apparently the smallest available - and I end up looking like a clown because it was so baggy that people thought I was going to bed. There are others who asked for 2XL and was given XL, thereby suffocating them and restricting their movements. You said the shirt sizes run bigger this year, so who thought it would be a great idea to make the smallest size S? You want to bring this event a notch higher but you couldn't even manage a simple logistical issue like shirt sizing. Sitting through all those rants and comments I made at the table was one of your staff who, instead of defusing the tension or explaining to me what happened, chose to sit there and silently watch (judged?) me. I purposely commented out loud to see if he - or the other 6 staffs nearby - would do anything, but to my dismay everyone failed that test. That aside, when I received my deployment paper, the information was so insufficient that you might as well not give me any. One of my deployment paper was misplaced and was only found and given to me 20 minutes before we were told to go. And since you are giving me a paper with useless information, why not at least include something useful like my team list? I had to take attendance by writing down their names to account for them. I guess the good thing about you restricting my crew count is that I don't have a lot of names to write.

I couldn't fathom the reason behind not giving any of the leaders an efficient mode of communication like walkie-talkies. I suppose you think it's reasonable for us to use our precious outgoing minutes (for postpaid) or deduct money (for prepaid) to call each other in order to ask for information? I started off the day with 51 minutes used up, and ended the day with 91 minutes, almost 3-quarters of which could be avoided because it was with staffs or other leaders, a situation which could have been avoided if we had walkie-talkies to keep us updated on the situation or for us to talk to each other. Maybe I should submit the claims for my 30 minutes of outgoing calls to you. Calling your staffs proved to be equally futile as well as most of my calls are redirected to the voicemail or rang until it was cut off. It was a blessing that I had unlimited data on Sundays, or else I would start claiming my data usage from you as well.

I can also imagine that you think that it's funny to recall and redeploy my volunteers without telling me. I had to split one of my teams into 2 subteams in order to take care of both shuttle buses drop-off points, and both subteams were recalled back to the standby location without my knowledge. At one point, while I was busy with my other team 10 minutes away, I was still under the impression that one of the subteam was still busy and I activated the other subteam to go and help them. When I returned, I noticed that none of them are there. After a few calls, I established that one of your staff has informed them to return. So now I had to recall the subteam that I activated after they have walked halfway there. When I returned to the deployment location, imagine how surprised I was to realise that none of them are there. One of the volunteer welfare crew (a crew, not a staff, mind you) then informed me that my volunteers have been redeployed to help out in baggage. So now I'm lost again, with half my volunteers missing and could be anywhere in the huge mess. Headless chickens might be fun to watch, until you are one of them. The same staff who watched me complain about the shirt earlier is still there, but again chose to sit and silently watch me. He only called the baggage staff after I asked him to - such efficiency and helpfulness. We were then brought to the baggage area, only to be asked to wait again. While all these mess was taking place, I was headed over to my other team, which was very generously taken under the wing of a friend of mine but reallocated to another pen because for some reason the leader that was already there was throwing his weight around. Anyway I can't comment much on how it was there since I wasn't there physically when they were at their busiest, but I can comment on what they did after it was over.

Nothing. They were left helplessly at the side of the road while it was being opened to traffic, and when I rejoined them we got lost together, I called up the in-charged but all calls went unanswered. We watched as runners ran on the pavement as the roads have been opened, joining the race after what seemed like an eternity for them at the baggage drop-off counters. After a long wait, we received the message to all return to *SCAPE, even though that was not part of our deployment or redeployment or stand-down plans. And it was done so messily that teams without leaders wouldn't have received the call to head back, and they might have been waiting there until the sun comes up with no one to call or approach if I didn't ask them to spread the message.

Since we're on the topic of baggage, let me just take this opportunity to mention how haphazardly it was conducted. I couldn't blame the volunteer crews and leaders on the ground to help coordinate - they did an amazing job, making do with what they have (or rather don't have). There's lack of manpower, lack of clear instructions and communication, lack of logistics etc, but I'm surprised the queue even moved at all. There were so little counters and lorries that I'm not sure if it's possible to move the bags of the people that were arriving by the bus loads. One thing I couldn't wrap my mind around is that you have a huge tentage but 80% of the space wasn't utilised - there weren't any poles available to allow them to snake around, but instead 2 straight lines that extended out onto the roads and spilled onto the neighbouring shopping centre floors. The last time I was there, it was 5.20am - minutes before the start pens were scheduled to close - but the queue went as far as I can see. The crews and leaders worked hard to get everything moving to the best of their abilities, but I can't say that it's the same for the staffs there.

After that mess was sorted out, everyone headed back to *SCAPE for a very short time to rest and for the crew to catch their breath before the announcement was shouted around to ask everyone except the baggage teams to head to the road quickly to board the bus quickly as the buses cannot wait. But guess who did the waiting when everyone are down at the Red Box? I had sufficient time to look for my 2 missing volunteers - who were redeployed to the other baggage deposit station 20 minutes away - bring them to the gathering area, account for them, and have a chat with the other leaders there about the current situation before the bus arrived. After everyone has boarded the bus and it started moving, a question popped into my head. Where do we go and who do we link up with when we reach Padang? I called up your staff and to my surprise, she was unsure either, but she promised that she will call me back. My phone was silent in the 15 minutes it took for us to reach our destination. Luckily we ran into some of your staffs there and they assisted in getting us redeployed to where manpower is needed most. No prizes for guessing - ding ding ding - baggage.

The baggage situation at Padang wasn't any better either. The bags were unloaded one after another but there was a lack of an efficient system to process them. The shelves were small and couldn't accommodate the hundreds of them per category. The category placards were attached at the front but not at the back, which was fine for the first few alphabets until you find yourself at letters like 'K', and you have to either start counting the shelves or walk back and forth to see which shelf correspond to which letter. The 1m by 1m placards posted prominently at the front made it look like we know where everything is to the runners, but the truth is anything but. The 'B' bags can be found at the 'A' shelves, and 'D' bags are in at least 5 different places in the tentage - on the 'D' shelves, on the 'C' shelves, on the floor behind the shelves, at the side of the tentage, outside the tentage. Each segment on the shelves aren't labelled properly either, meaning that the 01xx-series bags are found next to the 04xx-series bags, while 00xx-series bags are lying on the floor. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but not knowing where's the haystack.

The runners were getting so frustrated with the long wait that many of them vented their frustration on the volunteers, and anyone would think that your staffs should be the ones taking the questions. But nooooo, they'd rather be at the back, keeping their heads down, and help to look for the bags at where is now starting to look like a warzone. In fact, I had the pleasure of asking a person with an "EVENT STAFF" shirt to help out in something while he was drinking a can of cold drink, only having to see his annoyed look and reluctant to move from where he is. The answer he gave me was half-hearted too, obviously not wanting to take the slightest effort to help solve the problem. When I told one of your staff to move them forward to take the questions from the runners, I was given the answer that they know what they are doing. Nope, clearly they don't. So instead, the volunteers who are given $20 allowance and sacrificed at least 10 hours of their night and weekend and sweated until their shirts changed colour are out there taking the heat instead of the more (probably) well-paid staffs who are chilling at the back and giving instructions that they are unsure of themselves. What a pleasant experience everyone must have had.

Volunteer welfare at the baggage tentage was non-existence as well. While the volunteers are losing water by the second, sweating in the poorly ventilated tentage, there was no attempt in getting water to refresh them. One of the volunteer from a leaderless team experienced gastric pain, and a few of the leaders had to take care of her and try to get food and water for her. When I asked your staff for water, his reply was "I understand that everyone is thirsty, but we don't have time for that now". How nice it is to be treated like that, to be taken as unimportant even though we are falling by the minute. Luckily one of the APO was kind enough to see the problem and offered his assistance in approaching the staffs from other tentages to convince them to give us some water in order to alleviate the situation in what is now turning into a hell of a place by the standards of a gold-going-for-platinum event. Although I admit that I was being harsh by screaming to everyone, I was indeed very thankful for the people in charged of the cold drinks area at the SCB Staff Tent to release one box of water for me to bring it to my crews, and then followed by the people manning the 100PLUS booth at the Race Village who also gave me another box of 1.5L water bottles to bring to the tentage.

"My volunteers are fainting in the baggage tent, and I don't care how or where you get the water from, I want them now" was something I've never wanted to say but I found myself saying it not once, not twice, but on 3 separate occasions. I would say sorry to the people who were on the receiving end of my fire, as I know it's not their fault for being put in that situation but rather the failure of the whole committee. Unfortunately, it seems like it's the only way to get things moving, because 10 minutes after my call, a trolley with 5 cartons of water bottles finally roll up. You should see the faces of relieve on the volunteers' faces to understand what you put them through. If it takes something as simple as a bottle of water for them to be as happy as if they have seen their saviour, then you know that something is fundamentally very wrong with what you are doing.

Your staff still had the guts to tell the other leaders - and I overheard - that "do y'all know that y'all need to volunteer for 10 hours one?" Well we don't, because as usual, none of these were communicated to us, along with basic and fundamental details like our deployment plans. Apparently stand-down, the supposedly most fuss-free procedure, was not without its problems. Is it even acceptable that only one person can stand us down, and when it's time for us to do so, to handle something else that's totally unrelated? Ok fine, it was a medical situation relating to an athlete who fell ill at the finish line, but there were so many other staffs who were unauthorised to perform the stand-down procedure hanging around. Surely they could have been tasked to handle that, while freeing up said person to settle the standing down of the volunteers? Thanks to the inefficiency of this, we were held back for a further 30 minutes after a long and arduous shift, and some of my volunteers still had work after that, meaning that most likely they were late and had their pay docked because someone decided it would be funny to neglect the volunteers, the "faces of the race".

The final saving grace from me collapsing completely is having the opportunity to be allocated with really amazing volunteer crews who were able to work independently from me. They took the initiative to find out what's going on, and go about with the job without fuss and solved on-the-ground problems themselves - unlike your staffs who disappeared at the most crucial moments. I also had the luck to be allocated an experienced volunteer leader who was demoted to crew by you, but selflessly offered his expertise anyway, stepped up to the role of a leader, helped me manage one of my team, and settle a dispute with another leader. Unfortunately he was only given the crew allowance, much to my annoyance and feeling of unfairness. In fact, I felt that most of the volunteers were underpaid given the amount of shit they were put through. My final disappointment came when they asked for extra shirt to keep as memento but was turned down. With the number of volunteers who withdrew and with no replacement, it should be a no-brainer to figure out that there are a lot of shirts left over.

But that was just for event day, REPC was another thorny issue. You took out so many of the leaders who are experienced because you only allow for each leader to take up only one role, and putting in place new leaders who are inexperienced, thereby contributing to slower procedures in the back-of-house. Questions from them to the staff were returned with "I don't know", "not my problem", or ended with "I think". Some crews had to step up to help the leaders manage the flow, and they were probably a lot more skilled and knowledgeable than your staff. The volunteers also devised of a way to pass the shirts around more quickly and efficiently than what you have, but yet you still stopped them. Granted, it was throwing them around, but it's not like they're fragile and they are in plastic bags. Even airline baggage handlers do the same thing too. It's so much faster than what you suggested, and the volunteers were having so much fun with it. But you want to be the joykiller and stop them from doing the one thing that makes their duty less mundane than it could already possibly be. You had more manpower than you possibly know what to do with them, and instead of asking them to pack the race packs, you allocate one crew per shirt size per gender, ending up with almost 8 to 10 crews at the shirts table. I've never seen a more inefficient use of volunteers.

At the end of the day, I figured that most of the problems can probably be narrowed down to a very small group of people or even one single person, but I shall not name names. After all that has happened and with all the "pleasant" experience gained by the volunteers, good luck with looking for them in the future. I've never seen morale in volunteers fallen to this low before, and it's quite heartbreaking to see them join excitedly only to be shot down in the short 10 hours or more. You brought this to yourself, and you only have yourself to blame. However I shouldn't worry too much about it. You're probably sitting on a high horse and think that because you're a big event, volunteers will flow in freely anyway, and hence won't pay much attention and respect to them. Because if you really do, this 3500-odd word essay won't be here.

 

 

 

[Ender]

Singapore Marathon tio complain for blocking doctors and patient of Raffles Hospital. There's even a bleeding patient.. Serious poor route planning. A  lesson to learn for future runs.

 

 

Poorly planned marathon roadblocks endangered lives

Several roadblocks were set up to facilitate the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on Dec 3. However, these were poorly planned and endangered lives.

The roads immediately surrounding Raffles Hospital were blocked off from 1am to 8am that morning.

Those manning the roadblocks were unable to direct traffic and did not allow patients and doctors access to the hospital, even though it was an emergency. Ambulances faced significant delays going in and out of the hospital too.

Patients and doctors had to alight from their cars and taxis several blocks away and continue their journey on foot. At least one patient was bleeding from a miscarriage, while others were in pain.

Another patient who was in premature labour was unable to reach the labour ward in time. She had to deliver in the accident and emergency department, but without her obstetrician's assistance, as he was still making the trek to the hospital from a distant carpark.

Those manning the roadblocks were unable to direct traffic and did not allow patients and doctors access to the hospital, even though it was an emergency. Ambulances faced significant delays going in and out of the hospital too.

I have never heard of roadblocks in Singapore affecting emergency services so badly. When did the provision of such essential services become a lower priority?

 

 

No event, no matter how much of a showcase for the country, should disrupt essential services and compromise the health, safety and livelihood of the infirm and injured in our country.

Chan Wen Yan (Dr)

 

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/poorly-planned-marathon-roadblocks-endangered-lives

[13177]

Singapore Marathon tio complain for blocking doctors and patient of Raffles Hospital. There's even a bleeding patient.. Serious poor route planning. A  lesson to learn for future runs.

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/poorly-planned-marathon-roadblocks-endangered-lives

Think it is not the first time they are organising marathon here le, wonder why the cock up in this marathon? Seems like many running events held this year organise badly.

[inlinesix]

Singapore Marathon tio complain for blocking doctors and patient of Raffles Hospital. There's even a bleeding patient.. Serious poor route planning. A  lesson to learn for future runs.

 

 

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/poorly-planned-marathon-roadblocks-endangered-lives

 

Raffles Hospital is right smack in the middle of the route.

 

I don't understand why organiser can't use East Coast Park as much as possible rather than turning left at junction of Bras Basah and Victoria Street.

 

From thereon, do all the stupid looping.

 

[kdash]

Singapore Marathon tio complain for blocking doctors and patient of Raffles Hospital. There's even a bleeding patient.. Serious poor route planning. A  lesson to learn for future runs.

 

 

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/poorly-planned-marathon-roadblocks-endangered-lives

 

seems like SCM planning getting worse every year... there should be a cap on the no. of participants so that the event can still be managed well... 

[inlinesix]

seems like SCM planning getting worse every year... there should be a cap on the no. of participants so that the event can still be managed well... 

 

No of participants is like morphine.

[Ender]

A reminder today is the last for for loyalty and early bird rate.

 

http://www.2xucompressionrun.com.sg

[Ender]

A reminder today is the last for for loyalty and early bird rate.

 

http://www.2xucompressionrun.com.sg

 

The extended loyalty and early bird registration ends today.  @theoldjaffa, are you signing?

 

http://www.2xucompressionrun.com.sg/

[Theoldjaffa]

The extended loyalty and early bird registration ends today. @theoldjaffa, are you signing?

 

http://www.2xucompressionrun.com.sg/

Wah thanks for the reminder. Lemme think about it

[Ender]

So early annouce their date liao. The SAFRA Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon will be on 26th Aug. For those who have been running this yearly, mark your calendar.

http://www.safra.sg/participate/singapore-bay-run#.WnLM26iWZPa

[BanCoe]

Any guys running on this Saturday's Sundown marathon?? @Ender?? 

[Ender]

Any guys running on this Saturday's Sundown marathon?? @Ender?? 

No, very expensive, More expensive than Stand Chart.. You going? All the best, and a good weather.

[BanCoe]

Going but afraid of the knee "hantu" coming to haunt me; Its slightly more expensive than StanChart by $10/- but i like it 'cos no stress of waking up early like at 3am just to get ready and transport woes early at 3am and this one don't sweat so much too and no sun as finish by 6 am to welcome the sun unlike the other one (StanChart) kenna the 10am sun damn teruk(especially going up the bridge near end of Gardens by the Bay for like over 600m inclination and then sudden drop after that (all wobbly already) around the 35-36km mark    

 

  

No, very expensive, More expensive than Stand Chart.. You going? All the best, and a good weather.

 

[Ender]

Going but afraid of the knee "hantu" coming to haunt me; Its slightly more expensive than StanChart by $10/- but i like it 'cos no stress of waking up early like at 3am just to get ready and transport woes early at 3am and this one don't sweat so much too and no sun as finish by 6 am to welcome the sun unlike the other one (StanChart) kenna the 10am sun damn teruk(especially going up the bridge near end of Gardens by the Bay for like over 600m inclination and then sudden drop after that (all wobbly already) around the 35-36km mark    

Wah, you take care of your knees.   No shame in DNF when it hurts.. 

[BanCoe]

So far never kenna DNF or DQ   or any other D's in the last 18 years .... LOL  , Ortho also say go ahead as just 3 weeks back done the NTUC 21km run; Hurt and pain comes in after 3-4 days after the run especially when climbing staircase

 

Last time even many people tell me wear this type and that type of knee guards and I ask my Ortho and Physio and both say does not really help and in fact it makes me very sensitive somehow of that foreign object impeding my usual motion  ; In fact last year I threw away the knee guards thing around the 10km mark as I felt I could not have the natural motion and was becoming a nuisance;      

  

 

 

 

 

Wah, you take care of your knees.   No shame in DNF when it hurts.. 

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by BanCoe

[Ender]

So far never kenna DNF or DQ   or any other D's in the last 18 years .... LOL  , Ortho also say go ahead as just 3 weeks back done the NTUC 21km run; Hurt and pain comes in after 3-4 days after the run especially when climbing staircase

 

Last time even many people tell me wear this type and that type of knee guards and I ask my Ortho and Physio and both say does not really help and in fact it makes me very sensitive somehow of that foreign object impeding my usual motion  ; In fact last year I threw away the knee guards thing around the 10km mark as I felt I could not have the natural motion and was becoming a nuisance;      

Can search youtube for quads, and calves strengthening exercises.

i just restart marathon running last stand chart after a 5 years break. I only intend to do max  one a year. Not to stress the knee too..

[kdash]

Going but afraid of the knee "hantu" coming to haunt me; Its slightly more expensive than StanChart by $10/- but i like it 'cos no stress of waking up early like at 3am just to get ready and transport woes early at 3am and this one don't sweat so much too and no sun as finish by 6 am to welcome the sun unlike the other one (StanChart) kenna the 10am sun damn teruk(especially going up the bridge near end of Gardens by the Bay for like over 600m inclination and then sudden drop after that (all wobbly already) around the 35-36km mark

all the best and have a good run!

[Ender]

So far never kenna DNF or DQ   or any other D's in the last 18 years .... LOL  , Ortho also say go ahead as just 3 weeks back done the NTUC 21km run; Hurt and pain comes in after 3-4 days after the run especially when climbing staircase

 

Last time even many people tell me wear this type and that type of knee guards and I ask my Ortho and Physio and both say does not really help and in fact it makes me very sensitive somehow of that foreign object impeding my usual motion  ; In fact last year I threw away the knee guards thing around the 10km mark as I felt I could not have the natural motion and was becoming a nuisance;      

All the best for tonight's run. The rain just ended, so should be a cooling night.