Jakarta Running Festival: Building Indonesia's Biggest Running Event | Race Director Donny

From 16,500 participants in 2024 to 37,000 in 2026, the Jakarta Running Festival has quickly established itself as one of Southeast Asia's premier running events, becoming Indonesia's first World Athletics Gold Label race in the process.

With Dean heading over to compete in the elite half marathon and Raf Baugh taking on commentary duties for the international broadcast, Ryan and Dean sit down with Race Director Donny to learn more about the event's remarkable rise.

We get a fascinating insight into what goes on behind the scenes of organising a major international running event, from shutting down the streets of one of the world's busiest cities to attracting world-class athletes and managing the challenges of racing in Jakarta's notorious heat and humidity.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How the Jakarta Running Festival has grown to 37,000 participants in just three years.

• The journey to becoming Indonesia's first World Athletics Gold Label event.

• Building a world-class elite field, including multiple sub-60-minute half marathoners.

• Prize money, athlete recruitment and the commercial realities of organising major running events.

• The challenges of racing in 24–26°C temperatures with high humidity.

• Course design, road closures and the logistics of delivering a two-day running festival.

• The explosion of running participation across Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

• Jakarta's ambitions for the future and what Australian events, particularly Perth, could learn from its success.

  
  

Plus, we find out what Dean can expect on race day, how Raf landed the commentary gig, and whether Donny could one day bring his race-directing expertise to Perth!

A great conversation for anyone interested in the growth of running, the business behind major events, and what it takes to create a world-class race experience.

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What a week of marathon running and no need to fear if you missed any of it as we have you covered.

Perth Running Festival brought the goods with Dominic Ngenu’s strong solo win in the marathon, Dean racing hard in the 10K and finishing third, and impressive times across the board.

Melbourne Marathon delivered the spectacle, Kipchoge doing Kipchoge things, Tommy De Canto showing experience and running a PB, and Jimmy Whelan learning the hard way that 2:08 ambitions on debut don’t translate.

Chicago saw Clayton Young’s gutsy come-from-behind American record, Charles Hicks right there hunting, and the women’s race owned by Izzy Bat-doyle smashing the Australian/Oceania record in 2:20:38.

📰 In running news, the stories were everywhere. Perth’s got problems to fix, no kilometer markers on course, missing elite drinks, and a few questions about social media strategy. But the depth of Australian marathon running is genuinely unhinged. Seth O’Donnell solo 61:20 in the half. Nicola Sheridan from Ireland flying a 2:29 after switching to Sydney. The domestic talent pool is ridiculous.

📺 YouTube Diaries gets a big one this week. Marcus Malone dropped a 50-minute documentary called Ordinary Excellence, the Grant Fisher story. Long-form content done properly, childhood, college, coaching relationships, build-up to New York. It’s storytelling, not highlight reels. Shout to Joey Bowden for the tip-off.

👊 Double Trouble stays light as Ryan gets some grief!

Plenty in this one. Enjoy!

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Welcome to the fourth episode of our bi-weekly series, The Road To Dublin, where we follow three athletes building toward the Dublin Marathon on October 25th.

The end is well and truly in sight as all the guys enter their tapers. We cap of the last 2 weeks of training and look into what the next two weeks will entail. It's super exciting times as all three look forward to race day!

Please meet: Bri McGhee, a final-year dietetics student running her very first marathon.

David Troy, the national 10k champion, gearing up for only his second time over the 42.2km distance.

Will Boyle, an Asics frontrunner coming off an injury that ruled him out of London, now looking ahead to an exciting Dublin build.

Follow along as these three chase very different dreams on the same course.... it's going to be something special.