Singapore’s First Race Database at Just Run Lah! | PrisChew

Local running portal, Just Run Lah! has recently launched Singapore’s first race database.

It’s a one-stop shop with all the information about Singapore’s running calendar, and much more – at your fingertips.

Running portal Just Run Lah! has just launched Singapore’s first race database. So you will no longer have to search through dozens of websites to seek race information. All you will need to do now, is to visit the Just Run Lah! race portal to find out any aspect of a race you may need.

At the same time, it is a Wikipedia-style portal that can be edited by anyone. So if you wish to add some information or valuable feedback about a race that you have recently taken part in, you can easily use your Just Run Lah! account to do so.

I asked the co-founder of Just Run Lah!, Andy Tan Yong Seng about why this amazing one-stop race portal was set up. Here is what Andy said.

What initially made you come up with the idea of the Singapore Race Database?

There are so many discussions amongst recreational runners of things like how race venues change, or how prices went up over the years. There are also people who want to look at the value-for-money element of events or compare runner’s entitlement, and finally, you have those who just want to go and look back at a finisher’s medal or t-shirt design.

Most of these things you can find online, but the problem is that most of the official websites will be only up for some time. Then all information is wiped out and be replaced with next year’s edition. So, unless someone has posted them on their blog or in a forum, previous information is lost forever. And even if a person has done so, it’s a tedious task to retrieve and find what you are looking for. So we thought, what if we archived them neatly? What if we had a place where you can find all the key information of a race?

The idea was planted, with the help of a few of our forum members. We built on that and added new features. For example, someone suggested, “What if we had a rating system of key aspects of each race?” Someone else added, “What if we add links to blog posts and reviews of each race?” We did all that, and even more, so runners can now have all the information they need, gathered all in one place.

Describe, in a nutshell, the main purpose of the Singapore Race Database.

I would say that it serves a few distinct purposes. Firstly, it is to keep a clean record of key information and media related to past and forthcoming running events in Singapore. Secondly, by the user rating system on key aspects of each race (such as amenities, route planning, hydration points, pre-race logistics, etc.) and commenting, newcomers can get an idea of what to expect from a race, based on unbiased feedback from participants in previous years’ editions. Lastly, by linking to off-site blogs and reviews, we want to bring the online running community closer.

**How would you consistently keep the race database on JustRunLah! up to date with the latest information?**

For the new and upcoming races, we mostly get press releases sent to us from the organizers directly. But what’s most important, is the constant updating and addition of information and media for each race – and that’s done by our readers. We have taken a Wiki-style direction, so anybody can easily update or add information to any race on the database.

What do you hope to achieve by creating the Singapore Race Database?

Running a race always leaves you with a lot of memories. We want to help preserve and share these memories. Furthermore, as the number of races keep on increasing, we would like to provide runners with a resource to easily compare what each event provides and make it easier for runners to choose which one fits them the best. Finally, we would like to have a platform for runners’ voices to be heard and hopefully taken into consideration by race organizers for future race editions. This may sound a bit ambitious, though.

Anything else you would like to add about your database?

What I would like to stress is that this project, just as the rest of JustRunLah!, are highly user-centric. A lot of ideas were conceived by members of our forum, which we implemented and built on. We tried to make all ideas from our members happen, and we have a special section for that on the forum. So, we hope you enjoy and find this new platform useful, and we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on how to make it better!

Click here to view the Singapore Race Database at the Just Run Lah website.

Click here to start your own blog at the Just Run Lah website.