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.

A big one this week as we’re joined by Sam Maxwell — Managing Director of Emageo Group and Elite Athlete Coordinator for the Perth Running Festival — ahead of race weekend in Perth.

Sam takes us behind the scenes of building an elite field: recruiting international athletes, appearance fees and prize money, pacemakers, visas, anti-doping and the challenge of growing Perth into a genuinely world-class marathon. We preview Sunday’s races, unpack the headline names coming to WA and hear about the longer-term ambitions for the event.

Then it’s back to regular Easy Double business.

Dean is FINALLY back racing, opening his season with a solo 14:46 5,000m — although he very nearly didn’t make the start line. We break down his race, the return to spikes and what it means ahead of another hit-out at the Perth Running Festival this weekend.

Elsewhere, we cover Jakob’s home-town RunFest, Manchester and Cardiff Half results, the latest running news, Nike dropping THREE new racing shoes — the SwooshFly, Alphafly 4 and Apex — and London Marathon’s move to a two-day event.

Plenty in this one. Enjoy!

🎧 Enjoying Easy Double?
Leave us a review on Spotify — it takes a few seconds and genuinely helps the podcast grow.

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Clips, race coverage, episode highlights and plenty more throughout the week.

🤝 Support the podcast on Patreon:
Join the Easy Double Patreon to support the show and get early, ad-free access to the main podcast plus an exclusive bonus episode every week.

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Berlin Marathon brought the drama as Tigst Assefa was looking to break the femle marathon world record before an achilles injury derailed her in the final 2km, finishing 2:11:04 and straight into surgery. Guye Adola floated to victory looking impossibly smooth, and Jake Smith grabbed a massive lifetime best.

In Ireland Eoin was back racing with a 5K road race in Dublin, building toward his November goal.

📰 In running news Jack Rainier looks to DNS Melbourne marathon while the shoe wars heating up with Mizuno's 96-gram hyper warp threatening to either revolutionise or blow away in the wind. Vinny Strava (Vinnie Maori) is doing genuinely unhinged marathon prep for Chicago with 40+ mile days at marathon pace, double thresholds on treadmills. The man's a follow.

📺 YouTube diaries are everywhere now. Nomio's dropping training content, Clayton Young's got new ones, Graham Blanks showing his process. The transparency's brilliant.

👊 Double Trouble goes rogue as we debate what belongs on Strava (spoiler: zoo walks with 19 animal photos are acceptable if they commit hard enough), and Dean's got a story about riding a flat-tired bike in jeans three pints deep to make an interview with Cam on time.

If you enjoy the podcast, make sure you're following Easy Double on Spotify so you never miss an episode, and leave us a rating — it really helps us reach more runners.

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For £5 / A$10 per month you'll get weekly bonus episodes, exclusive training diaries from Ryan, Dean & Eoin, behind-the-scenes content, early access and extra analysis you won't hear on the public podcast.

Thanks as always for listening — we hope you enjoy the episode!

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

We're well over halfway there, and with just under 4 weeks left until the big day, training is stepping up. They've each raced half marathons and just completed their biggest weeks. Follow us as we reach the critical final phase of their training blocks.

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.

Still only 20, Cam has already run 3:28.00 for 1500m, 3:46.06 for the mile and 7:25.57 for 3000m — and his 2026 season has seen him become Diamond League Champion, Millrose Games champion, Commonwealth Games silver medallist and World Ultimate Championships runner-up.

🎙️ Cam joins us to chat about:

🏆 Winning the Diamond League Final in Brussels
🧠 The mindset shift from looking up to the world’s best to believing he can beat anyone
⚔️ Racing Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Josh Kerr and the best 1500m runners in the world
📈 His incredible progression over the last couple of seasons
🧪 Double threshold, lactate testing and the training behind 3:28
🏃‍♂️ Why there’s no such thing as the “perfect” training programme
🇦🇺 Choosing to stay in Australia rather than taking the NCAA route
✈️ The reality of spending months racing and training around Europe
🎯 Race tactics, championship racing and where he can still improve
🌍 His thoughts on World Ultimate, World Athletics rankings and the current state of the sport
🔮 What comes next after a breakthrough season at the very top of the sport

💬 “There has to come a time where you’ve just gotta believe like no one can beat you.”

One of our favourite conversations yet with one of the most exciting athletes in world athletics.

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Enjoy! 🤝

Copenhagen's World Road Running Championships and the Atlos women's meet both served up quality racing — with Almgren's half marathon European record and Jakob collapsing in a starfish the headline moments while Keely Hodgkinson steals the show in London.

📰 In running news ON's somehow pulled Mbappe away from Nike. Curtis Marshall's whispers about getting Mondo to Perth. The AlphaFly 4 finally landed — and it looks suspiciously like the 3. Jack Rainier's DNF in Copenhagen raising questions about Melbourne's chances.

We've also got YouTube diaries on the agenda, with Conner Mantz and Andres Almgren linking up.

👊 Plus our Double Trouble segment gets teeth into the big questions: are road racing tactics broken? Does pushing from the front even work anymore?

Running news, YouTube drama, and hard takes on what it all means.

If you enjoy the podcast, make sure you're following Easy Double on Spotify so you never miss an episode, and leave us a rating — it really helps us reach more runners.

📲 Follow us on Instagram:⁠https://www.instagram.com/easydoublepod/⁠

⭐ Join the Easy Double Club on Patreon:⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/EasyDouble⁠

For £5 / A$10 per month you'll get weekly bonus episodes, exclusive training diaries from Ryan, Dean & Eoin, behind-the-scenes content, early access and extra analysis you won't hear on the public podcast.

Thanks as always for listening — we hope you enjoy the episode!