Golden Oldies - 1 - The MMOC Fun Runs

I love the Maltese running scene. It's one of the factors that I miss most of my native country. There's a well established calendar of races, and one gets used to a yearly cycle of training for the different events, each of which provides a pleasant, friendly atmosphere and is well attended.

Inevitably, along the years, some events eventually die out. Care for a nostalgia trip...?

The MMOC Fun Runs

I will start with the event where it all started, for me. The Malta marathon organising committee's fun runs throughout each summer. These used to be a series of short races held roughly every other Wednesday in different parts of the island, starting at 7pm. My first such fun run was in Marsascala, starting next to the San Tumas tower, all the way along the coast towards the old national swimming pool and back, for a total of 4.2km. In those days (the very early 90s) there would be over 200 participants in these runs, and the printed results would be handed out at the following race.

Other races in this series, most of them 4 to 5 km long, included:
Birżebbuġa - from Al Fresco to Freeport and back
Ta' Xbiex - Whitehall Mansions to Tignè and back
Siġġiewi - starting at the main square, a 5km loop through country roads around this village
Qawra - another fast loop starting and finishing next to Ta' Fra Ben
Rabat - 7.7km from Point de Vue place to Dingli and back, finishing next to the Roman Villa
Żurrieq - a 5 km loop starting from the Zurrieq Wolves clubhouse.

At the end of each race, they would raffle out a pair of shoes, by drawing the number given according to your placing. I was lucky at least twice on these occasions. On one remarkable instance, at a stage when the top athletes had begun to concentrate on more 'serious' events, I even came in first! This was at Siġġiewi - an incredible sensation, which is bound to remain a unique case.

It's a pity that these fun runs are no more. The informality, the summer evening atmosphere... they were unbeatable. They were also a means to encourage new participants to join the wonderful world of athletics, a sort of 'soft' introduction that was a 100% success in my case.

Unfortunately, their raison d'etre gradually came to an end. The fun runs had been introduced to fill a long gap of inactivity in athletics during the months of summer. But, with the growth of the Maltese athletics scene, other races began to 'creep' into this season too, with an inevitable dwindling and eventual dying out of attendances.