For M’sian runners, Jakarta is as much about friendship as the finish line

For many runners, travelling overseas for a race can be about more than chasing a personal best. There’s the early-morning start, the camaraderie of running alongside thousands of strangers – and, if all goes well, the satisfaction of discovering a new city on foot.

That was part of the appeal for members of Malaysia’s Haze Runners Club, who joined over 37,000 participants at the Jakarta Running Festival (JRF) 2026.

For Nur Farhana Marzuki, one of the biggest surprises was the energy surrounding the course. It was her first time taking part in the festival, and she found the atmosphere noticeably different from races back home.

“JRF has its own unique vibe, quite different from what we experience in Malaysia,” she said, pointing to the enthusiastic spectators and the way local communities turned out to support runners along the route.

The four-day event, held from Oct 22-25, featured 5km, 10km, half-marathon and full-marathon categories, alongside an expo and other community activities.

For regular runners such as Nur Farhana, events like this offer an excuse to travel, meet other running communities, and experience a city through the rhythm of a race weekend.

The Haze Runners Club itself has an appropriately Malaysian origin story. Club member Rosnita Hamzah, who is also the head of chancery at the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta, said the group began in 2015, when – much like these days – severe haze was affecting the country.

“We were already running together and decided to adopt the name Haze Runners Club,” she told Bernama. From a small bunch of friends, the gathering grew into a community whose members regularly take part in races at home and abroad.

Fellow member Siti Khadijah Mat Noor said running has become part of the group’s lifestyle, with some members tackling major events including the Berlin and Sydney marathons.

Indonesia has also become a familiar destination: Malaysian runners regularly travel for races such as the Maybank Bali Marathon and Jakarta International Marathon, while Indonesian participants are equally visible at events in Malaysia.

That two-way movement has helped create a regional running community that feels increasingly connected, with friendships often stretching beyond a single race.

This year’s Jakarta festival drew runners from 48 countries, with more than 1,000 international participants and representatives from over 500 running communities. Organisers said participation from Malaysia and Singapore had roughly doubled from last year.

For Rosnita, the appeal lies partly in how easily sport creates connections between people who might otherwise never meet. Running together offers a natural common ground, whether participants are comparing race routes, swapping training stories, or simply sharing the exhaustion of the final few kilometres.

Those encounters can feel especially meaningful between neighbouring countries whose residents already share so much in common culturally and socially.

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