Maybank Marathon Constantly Improves Its Quality

Maybank Marathon 2022 is ready to be held on Sunday, August 28. Celebrating a decade of journey, the organization of this running event continues to improve its quality in order to provide a comfortable, safe, orderly, and classy competition.

Quality improvement is a necessity, considering that Maybank Marathon is the only marathon event in the country which since the beginning of its implementation has received certification from the World Athletics Body, World Athletics, and since 2020 has become the first and only marathon event in Indonesia with the 'Elite Label' from World Athletics.

According to the Secretary General of the Asian Athletic Association, Sugumaran, the festivities of Maybank Marathon caught the world's attention. “This event was discussed at the Boston Marathon,” he said during the Welcoming Dinner at the Nikko Hotel, Benoa, Bali.

From year to year, Sugumaran continued, the Maybank Marathon is constantly growing due to good team work and careful preparation.

Separately, the Project Director of Maybank Marathon, Widya Permana, said the same thing. In order to maintain the title of 'Elite Label', the Maybank Marathon continues to learn from previous events and prepares everything as well as possible.

For this year, the Maybank Marathon has prepared bracelets for participants during the race pack collection on 26 and 27 of August. This waterproof race bracelet ensures that the competitor matches the registered name, and prevents the chest number from being handed over to someone else or the jockey.

The color of the race bracelet varies based on the participants’ marathon category. Yellow bracelet is for the Marathon category (42 kilometers), red is for the Half Marathon or 21 kilometers, green is for the 10 kilometer category, and blue is for the Wheelchair cateogry. There are also purple and light green bracelets for children in the Children Sprint category.

The color on the race bracelet also matches the color on the chest number which is also distributed to participants, but will only be worn during the competition. The contents of the race pack collection that will be distributed to participants are T-shirts, chest numbers, and race bracelets.

Considering the number of participants this year is almost 10 thousand people and comes from various regions in Indonesia and abroad, the committee has also prepared six shuttle bus locations that will take participants to the starting location at Bali Safari & Marine Park, Gianyar. The six locations are Kuta 1, Kuta 2, Denpasar, Sanur, Nusa Dua, and Ubud. This means that participants do not bother bringing vehicles to Bali Safari so they can avoid traffic jams. Moreover, the whole race track will be closed starting Saturday night.

Another fun fact is the availability of 20 photo spots along the marathon track that will capture the moment of participants. Runners can download their running photos on the website page provided by Maybank. This facility is relatively new and the first time it is available in a marathon event in Indonesia.

The committee has also prepared 40 pacers or pace makers who will guide the participants. This means that participants who set a time target to reach the finish line according to the selected category can follow the pacer's running rhythm. Thus, this marathon event is not just for chasing medals, but also an opportunity for runners to make progress on their time record.

Wasa, 17 year old runner, said that he wanted to gain experience and improve his time record during practice.

“I run about 7–8 kilometers every day. For a distance of 1 kilometer, it can take 6–7 minutes," said a high school student from Tuban, East Java, who chose the Half Marathon category in this event. (*)