The HRX Pinkathon was a 5k race that I ran on 26th November 2023. The race started at 6 AM, which I thought was quite early in the morning for a 5k.

Without mincing my words, it was a very poorly organized race. The start was very crowded, the gates of Cubbon Park, weren't open, so all the thousand people had to squeeze through the tiny gates on the side. The race was NOT timed as well (technically it isn't even a race), the bibs didn't have a timing chip (and there were no timing mats, obviously) although, during the registration it was advertised as a timed race.

There were very few aid stations, from what I remember. The route wasn't marked clearly and there were no volunteers to guide the runners. I was running the 5k, there was also a 10k event which was two loops of 5k. I accidentally went into the 10k loop, as I apparently missed a turn. I kept going, till my watch showed 6.5km when I found a volunteer and asked him where the route was, he told me to keep going which was weird since my watch was already showing over 6km. Soon, there were half a dozen people with me asking the same volunteer where the 5k route ended. The volunteer didn't seem to know that there were two different events. We just ended up following Google Maps back to the start line.

The target audience of this event was not serious athletes. It was marketed as a "race", but it just ended up being a fun event that a received a lot of sign ups because of the HRX and Cult.fit branding and their sales channels. There were obviously no pacers. Post race a lot of people were waiting for the Winner announcement and the Prize Distribution, which obviously never happened, because the race was NOT TIMED!

All in all, it was a very disappointing event and honestly a massive waste of time on a Sunday morning. This time could've been so much better used for any other training session. I will definitely not be running any future renditions of this event.