When adidas decided to release the race kit during its running expo it was a “make or break” situation—it was the first time that a race event held a running expo (similar to races abroad) giving a chance to the company to “make” a good impression, but at the same time being a first there was a lot of chance to “break” their reputation.

Day One, “Yin:” Last Saturday’s distribution of race kits by adidas during the first day of its running expo at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall 2 drew a lot of bad remarks from runners, and that was putting it lightly.  It was an utter mess!  Runners have to be on queue much longer than they would run their races with turn-around time of four to six hours!  Other race organizers also had problems like these during distribution but none of them can compare with what happened with adidas.  I was there personally to claim my kit and for the 20 minutes I was on line it only moved about a foot.   Call me impatient but my time is important so I had to walk out without having my kit (I still had my claim stub anyways).  It was literally hours before QCIM so I don’t have the luxury of time and just went home empty handed—I can’t imagine how people who waited six hours must’ve felt.

Day Two, “Yang:” Sunday, the last day of the expo.  After my six-hour-full-marathon-pacer-duty at the QCIM (to be posted later) I prepared myself to be standing in line for two hours.  After all the post run regimens I headed off to the expo and was delightfully surprised on how organized it was—far-fetched from the day before!  Everything was easy, smooth, and fast, although the food stub issue seemed to persist—thankfully they made it easy to fix.  In just a few minutes I was able to get my kit and food, and was seating conveniently near the stage for the program while eating (too bad I wasn’t able to connect to the mall’s WiFi for a “live” blogcast).  I even got to join the contest and won some prizes from Gatorade.  It was a complete turn-around and made me feel pity for those who endured the previous day’s chaos.

It’s highly likely that there were more exasperated runners than those who are not judging by the volume of runners during the first day so it’s only natural that adidas receive a lot of condemnation from the community in general.  As such the organizers issued a public apology to those concerned and in fairness to them they did acknowledge the problem and acted aptly to fix the problem.  With the problems that the organizers encountered with the distribution all of us can only hope that they’ve learned their lessons and it would translate into a better race.  Until then we can only wait and hope for the best.