ELECTRIC
JAKARTA
MARATHON
October 2018
The 2018 Asian Games just ended a few months ago, and with all the hype and excitement I decided to race there in Jakarta. I have also never been to Jakarta and I only know very basic phrases so this will be another interesting trip. The initial plan was to race in the Maybank Bali Marathon (there were only a few weeks difference between the two) but after reading a few reviews and considering the flight and accommodation costs in Bali, I chose the capital instead.
The start and finish of the race was at the Monumen Nasional (Monas) in the Medan Merdeka, and I was lucky enough to find reasonable accommodations near the area. I also plotted where to eat and what to do in the next few days since a lot of places there I can visit on foot. However, after a few months they announced that the new start and finish will be at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) stadium where the Asian Games was held. That was pretty far from my hotel and now I had to change my itinerary! Good thing I was still within the cancellation period for the hotel booking and I instead look for a hotel near GBK. Unfortunately, this time I had to pay twice the amount of the first hotel since the area is close to the business district. Still, I had to make this change because it is more efficient to stay near the start/finish of the race especially when you are in a country whose language and location you are not familiar with.
I arrived in Jakarta and arranged to have a hotel car fetch me in the airport, as once again I took a late-night flight. I claimed my race kit the next morning and scouted the venue so I can plan how long it would take for me to get there and to do my warm-up before the race. This was probably also my only time to take photos of GBK since it will be filled with people on race day.
It was a good race with my expected tropical weather and a landscape comparable to MY and PH. I’m just wondering if route for this race could be more scenic if we started in Monas since only the full marathon runners were able to reach farther. There was also another race ongoing near GBK and I saw other runners wearing other singlets.
I just wished I could have learned a little more Bahasa Indonesia before going here. I do look like a local so everyone was speaking to me in their native language and probably 70% of those I encountered cannot converse back to me in English, even the Grab drivers. In line with this and since I was also in the business district, I was not able to go around to scenic locations until I met up with an online friend from Jakarta who gave me a quick tour of Central Jakarta—and I finally had some authentic satay! Even the food courts here have really good choices. So this is a lesson for me next time I go here: study the language!
