Emmm...please don't mind my long story...............I'm one of the people who participated in the Lagos city Marathon 2016.I wasn't there to win or be among the top 20 Nigerians.I just wanted to know how I can endure a whole 42KM road race mentally and physically.I just trained for a week while a true marathon preparations should be at least six to eight months before the race as I heard.Trust me people it wasn't easy I mean its not a child's play.Thank God I was able to achieve my aim of finishing the race.And kudos to some girls that I've underrated earlier on.They really proved me wrong.My problem with this marathon is that it was full of irregularities.Things that shouldn't happen in an international event.Lots of foreigners were there and they all witnessed the shameful things that happened.Just imagine a marathon race whereby immediately we started the race before we at the back(Nigerians) could get to the 1KM mark there were some guys who started using skates to run the race.The annoying thing was that the officials and the police at the road sides saw this guys but didn't do any thing to them.They all went ahead of us and we were all shouting at them but nothing happened.They stoped using the skates at the third mainland bridge which already gave them a dubious advantage over us.Then there were some people who didn't begin the race with us but joined at the middle of the race.Yet they weren't disqualified.Some people who were already tired who couldn't go further will board the free BRT bus heading towards the Eko Atlantic City(the Finish point) but they will get down when about to get to the Eko atlanti city.The officials saw all this and they weren't disqualified.They did nothing.There were some guys that I was running with.We kept each other company so it won't be boring.When we got to the KM37 we were all tired and could barely walk again.So they all decided to board the BRT bus that they could not complete the race again.I decided not to do that and I continued.I was actaully leap running at this point.I've already bacame totally weak but I kept going.initially I thought those who have being boarding the bus since morning would be droped at one side of our final destination and labelled runners who didn't finish the race and won't be entitled to medals and certificate.But to my greatest suprise when I finally got to the finish line I saw all these guys(the guys I was running with and those that had being bording bus since morning)including other cheaters happen to be the first two thousand to cross the line and they got certificate and medals.And those of us who truely ran the race only received certificate.I was really annoyed that what kind of injustice is this?.why should those cheaters be awarded.?Why are the officials promoting irregularities ?What kind of rubbish marathon is this?..I was really annoyed because the marathon is totally not a marathon.It's a BIG SHAME and TOTAL NON SENSE.

sad reality is the case. Its in our national character to cut corners. Sorry bro

F22RAPTOR:
sad reality is the case. Its in our national character to cut corners. Sorry bro

but this is an international events and we shuldnt take our national characters to internationl events.

This should be brought to the attention of the organizers to eliminate the observed irregularities in the next competition.

Ok na

Typical Lagosians.

Common sense is not common.

[quote author=tpiar post=42690831][/quote]

Are we trying to reinvent the wheels... the organizers should have gotten feed-backs from other marathon organizers on how to overcome people cheating... i took part in the race, we were all given a so called transponder attached to our race number... i now suspect the transponder was just pure marketing gimmick.

I got to start of the marathon quite late as i was held up in traffic... How could they manage traffic that would prevent participants going to the marathon venue from having easy access, beats my imagination.

My only regret was that upon finishing 41km, a lot of runners were refused access into Eko Atlantic because we had exceed the race closure time of 2:00P.M, After giving so much effort we should not have been denied the opportunity of getting to the finish line. The security personnel kept on shouting this is private property, private property, private... who send u message, why are you running when you are not from Kenya etc. etc. etc., no words of support or encouragement for all our efforts. I was not finding this funny, you mean an effort of 41km should just be dismissed like that. What the organizers failed to realize is that if you are using international cut off time one must consider the poor state of transportation, the likelihood of some people being held up in traffic due to poor traffic management.

All plea to the security men to open the gate and allow us to get to the finish line were rebuffed.

I feel most disappointed in the organizers, i think they were not ready to organize this event.

In Nigeria when you do the wrong thing you are rewarded, when you do the right thing you are punished! Runners who refused to start the race from the starting point are owner of the Lagos city marathon medals, while those of us while arriving at the venue late, but went to the starting line were not even allowed to complete the race even though only 1 km was left to finish line.