What's Next CCM?

After three editions of hosting Cebu's premier marathon (the 42K version of course), what else is next for the Cebu City Marathon? This has to be the "nice" dilemma that its organizers have to answer every year. I can still remember when it was still a 21K event in the past and everything else about it was simple and generally "average" from a running perspective. But ever since the event featured a full marathon, everything else has changed. And change it will, for the better as each year rolls along.

But what else can be done to make the event even better? It's really a matter of doing two things. First is to identify everything that went right, including the factors that made these departments click. A score can then be brought up as a "grade" for the event. We can use a scale of 100 for this. I'm assuming that all major departments or key success factors for a marathon of this magnitude are already or automatically part of the grading system. Basic examples would be the route of the run, presence of marshals, technical management of the race, traffic control, road management, crowd control, crowd support, water stations, parking, start/finish area atmosphere and more. There will also be the intangibles that can come in as bonus points or "blind" demerits. Next is to identify the items that didn't click. What were the items that would bridge the gap between the CCM's current score and a perfect 100?

But how will the organizers score their own race? Won't it be biased? One -sided? Thanks to technology and social websites, they can always go to blogs to pick up feedback about the run. Some will be good and obviously positive. While this is welcome, these can be set aside for further study/review. What they should really look out for are those legitimate negative reviews that can truly make the event even better. Note that these should be legit comments and not just loose talk coming from disgruntled runners who didn't wake up on time then complain about starting late or not finding parking slots, or simply have nothing else to say. Another source of feedback are the runners themselves. A survey can be released to those who ran weeks after the run and not necessarily right after the run. This gives them time to think about their answers thoroughly. From a sports fan's perspective, a survey can also be done among the non-runners market. Their survey will obviously be different from the one for the participants and will delve more on image and public perception about the CCM. This is a venue where one can pick up opportunity points and improvement areas from a general public viewpoint. We must remember that a run this big is not only targeted towards runners. It also involves the City of Cebu and its populace. And if the international running market is going to be a future target to crack in the future, they might as well include respondents from the international running scene.

I'm afraid that we obviously don't have the answers for all this right now. What we do know is that the CCM has received generally positive feedback from runners without any major complaints or negative talk. Yes, the price was a question, but it seemed to die a natural death. But I'm sure this will still be assessed when preparations are made for CCM 2014.

Looking forward though, we can make a few bold dreams for the CCM with the goal of making it the premier marathon of the country. It's easily the best outside Manila so we might as well be the best in the country. By raising the bar, the CCM will thus have to work doubly hard to reach such a dream. To be the best marathon in the country, it would have to attract the best runners of the country and even the best of Southeast Asia and Asia. Sure, the Kenyans are already here, but is it possible to get runners who are well known in the region and can beat the current winning times of 2:30? If it's tough to get world class runners, can we then target a bigger base of foreign runners who make up the sports tourism market? They are the runners who join marathons around the world for the thrill and fun of it. They will be the true blue tourists who can also enjoy the Sinulog festivities. This could even be a bigger chunk of the pie. Quite naturally, the total number or runners will also be tenfold and they will come from within the country and beyond our shores. With a marathon like this, the CCM will be the best in the country.

Can it be done? Or will it be done?

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Time-out: May Senyor Sto. Niño bless all of us as we give thanks for His taking care of all of us through His blessing and graces. Pit Senyor! >>> You can reach me at [email protected].