Rina Tambunan: From Maraton Lovers To International

Rina Tambunan, the first female Race Director in Indonesia (photo: dock.private)

JAKARTA - Being a Race Director in a successful international-class marathon competition cannot be experienced by everyone on earth.

To make this happen, of course, a lot of effort and hard work will be needed, because success will not be obtained easily, especially if it is done by a woman.

This is what Riena Tambunan can now learn, which already has a myriad of achievements in the world of international-class Maraton competitions.

His name is not as famous as a celebrity in the country, however, the dropouts from Gunadarma University and Queensland University are widely known in the international marathon world.

Rina Tambunan's career in the Maraton world, starting in 2006, at that time she always participated in various marathon competitions, because she had a hobby of running once to learn how to organize a marathon event.

"From various acquaintances and studying various marathon competitions, I started a relationship with people who used to work in the Maraton world. In 2015 I first studied at London Marathon, from there I was lucky to be able to join and learn to be the organizer of a marathon event," explained Rina Tambunan.

Rina began to learn how to be a good race director.

"From there I learned the lesson that there is no perfect race director, almost every marathon event. Like when in Chicago Marathon, there was an incident where the runner's drinking water ran out, even though it was in the same class as the Chicago marathon. At that time the weather was very hot, so runners sometimes took water and at the same time took four bottles to water their own bodies. And that often happens in every Maraton activity, there are unexpected events," he explained.

Rina explained that unexpected events could occur in every marathon competition, Tokyo Marathon 2022, where there are runners who enter the world's Top Elite who can also be categorized as Gold's wrong path.

"Even though it's only 200 meters, it's the wrong way, things like that must be accepted at every event. It doesn't mean that the organizers are not right, because human error factors often occur, that's why I always learn from mistakes," he joked.

Rina is the first female Race Director in Indonesia even in Asia, that's why she has the full support of friends in parts of the world who often hold marathon competitions.

"This year I have prepared to serve in Tokyo Marathon to handle marathon runners who fall into the elite category of runners," explained Rina, who has entered her second year at Tokyo Maraton.

Rina started running in 2006, because at that time it was still rare for people to run (jogging) around Senayan.

"I ran myself off the track on the side of the highway outside Gelora Senayan, after that I moved to Ragunan, South Jakarta, and I met the runners of the expatriate and got acquainted and then agreed to run away together," said Rina.

During her time as Race Director, Rina had on one occasion a marathon competition held in the city of Budapest and was asked how many marathon athletes.

"I was once asked, how many runners have you brought from Indonesia at this Budapest Marathon? I just answered, I don't know if there are runners from Indonesia who are present in Budapest Maraton because I represent Tokyo Maraton," he explained.

Actually, from the bottom of my heart, Rina is eager to bring Indonesia's name at every opportunity in the International Maraton Competition.

"I really want to bring the name Indonesia, but because Tokyo Maraton offered me as in the house first, I accept to work for them. The name Tokyo Maraton is big," said Rina, whose name is better known in the international marathon world than the name of the Secretary General of PB PASI himself.

Despite working for Tokyo Maraton, Rina Tambunan still has a great nationalist spirit by preparing one of the former national athletes to be included in the marathon competition at Chicago Marathon.

"Currently preparing one of Indonesia's marathon athletes to appear at the Chicago Marathon in October. And it uses my own personal money to bring one of the former national athletes," said Rina Tambunan who said the athlete was Triyaningsih.