Often, the race event organisers can Make or Break a running event. Often it’s a thankless task. When things go right by the organiser, no one acknowledges their good work, and when things go wrong, the combined angst of the whole running community will be on their backs asking for sacrificial blood! Knowing your race organiser and in particular, their capabilities and limitations, will help runners avoid race-day frustrations. So, Happy Runner decided to grill the organiser, the mild-mannered Mr. Delon (see above picture Left) of Dusty Monkey, who are the people behind the inaugural Kuantan Half Marathon scheduled for 11^th May 2014, and help shed some light on what runners can expect from their inaugural event.

1. Is this the first time, a half marathon is being held in Kuantan? “To my knowledge, there was once a half-marathon a very long time ago. In recent years however, there hasn’t been a major Half-Marathon in Kuantan. Mostly small runs in the vicinity of 10KM.”

2. How did you get involved in this event, and what is its purpose? “We were having tea at a Kopitiam when a friend mentioned casually that there were not many runs in Kuantan. Then me and my partner looked at each other and said, we could do this. We started off with a 13KM Kuantan Run last year and here we are today. We are looking to promote Kuantan as a healthy alternative to improve the general health of the community and to give runners all over Malaysia an opportunity to visit and run in our beautiful city of Kuantan.”

3. What are the unique features of this event which will make it special & worthwhile for the runners to enjoy? “A change of scenery for a lot of the serious runners all over the country, our starting point is right along the beautiful beach that opens out to the South China Sea. Runners will run through every monumental part of Kuantan and its historic landmarks that will certainly capture their heart and soul.”

4. How will you ensure that runner’s safety, convenience & comfort are well managed? “We will be working closely with the Traffic Police of Kuantan, RELA and Safety Marshall of our own that will provide crowd and traffic control throughout the entire route. There will be 3 medical teams and 2 ambulances that are fully equipped to handle any emergency on standby and ready to act in a moment’s notice”

5. Do you have any special hotel rates for the participants especially those from outstation? “Unfortunately, running in Kuantan is still not big enough to garner sufficient interest in surrounding hotels in Kuantan. We hope in the following races, we will have sufficient runners for hotels to heavily consider supporting us.”

6.How many runners are you expecting to take-part in this event? “We are highly optimistic of achieving our goal of 2000 runners this time round as we currently have over 1 thousand runners for the 21KM groups alone.”

7. Do you foresee this event to be an annual event? “The plan was always to create an annual running event in Kuantan back in 2013. So yes, we would definitely foresee this as an annual event in the coming years.”

8. What is the message which you would like to share with our readers? “Firstly, we would like to thank everyone that has supported us thus far and to continue to support us as we build on this momentum provided by everyone to further successfully organize an Annual Run in Kuantan. The BROOKS Kuantan Half-Marathon 2014 (KHM 2014) Panoramic Pahang is something special – the FIRST Major Half-Marathon in Kuantan, but also in Pahang. We genuinely hope that you the readers will come support us and take in the magnificent beauty of our lovely city of Kuantan.”

There you have it! Whether you run like a tiger or a monkey, a tortoise or a hare, Kuantan HM 2014 offers alittle bit of everything for you. Happy Runner wishes Delon & his crew all the best in making KHM 2014 a truly spectacular event!