Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon (KLSCM) began its pacer programme in 2010 with the intention of raising the quality of the event, and this has since grown to become a crucial ingredient of KLSCM.

Becoming a pacer for Malaysia’s premiere distance running event is a serious responsibility, so Dirigo Events, owners and organisers of the race, invited and conducted open trials for those harbouring to be an event pacer.

116 runners shortlisted 

Out of 247 applications, 116 runners were shortlisted for the trials, which took place over two consecutive Sundays.

Both sessions took place over a 1km loop in Jalan Duta, with runners being required to run consistently timed loops without the aid of watches or any electronic devices. The intention was to get the aspiring pacers to run by feel as consistently as they could, with the half marathon hopefuls doing 10 loops while those aspiring to pace the full marathon had to run 18 loops.

Freshening up the pacer team

Said Rainer Biemans, Project Director, KLSCM, “For the 12th edition of KLSCM, we wanted to freshen up the pacer team with some new blood, so we decided to conduct the open trials.”

He continued, “The response was great and we had some really good performances, which gives us a bit of headache to select the best participants. But that was a nice problem to have.”

Who the pacers are

Following the trials, the Dirigo Events team have analysed the results and have chosen 30 pacers for KLSCM 2020.

The pacers are as follows. [See image].

Look out for the pacers at the running clinics 

The pacers will be making appearances at the KLSCM 2020 running clinics which will be taking place from this month to May 2020.

If you have a time goal at KLSCM, do look out for the pacers for that timing and attend the running clinics that they will be at, to get to know them and seek their advice.