Once again the Sundown marathon is round the corner and the first Singapore night marathon has become ever so popular. Looking at the size of the race expo and being the 2nd Full Marathon race to set foot in Singapore, no wonder this event has created a hype among Singapore runners. The expo occupied 2 halls in Suntec and it’s self explanatory that it’s one of the bigger race expo in Singapore’s races. The quality of the race, if improved to cater for runner’s race experiences, it might even overtake the Singapore’s largest race, who knows.
Registration
Registration of this race always ends up in a dilemma. The thought of “torturing” both the physical body and mental mind to struggle through the full distance is daunting. In the actual run every year, especially in the wee hours struggling to hit the 32km mark (known to be the distance when hitting the wall) while everyone else is sleeping, I always tell myself not to take part in this race the following year. Lots of thoughts always run in the mind when staring at the registration form the following year. Here I am again writing to you on the race review this year.
Training
Do you require to train at the actual time where you are going to run? This is the question posed by many when chatting about this race.My answer is Yes, except for this specific race. It is recommended to train at the actual time of your race indeed, however this race is an overnight race.
The amount of mental preparation and time to recuperate for this race is much more than any morning race due to the inability of your body to cope with the higher intensity when it is supposed to be at rest. Unless one is willing to training consistently at midnight, then it would be worthwhile. My theory is simple, do it once, do it good.
Race pack expo
I went to the race expo on the last day, knowing that Friday and Saturday might invite the majority of the crowd to the expo. Once again I went at the right time (no queue) and it gave a positive experience during the expo.
Signages to direct runners towards the expo
There is security personnel to direct runners to the correct categories so that it will be more efficient during the collection. There are a number of collection booths specially catered for specific categories.
This is important for races with many categories
Choosing the right time for collection
Can’t help but stop to take a photo of the fact of running, “Running is Tiring but Shoik”
The booths allow runners to collect their bibs after checking on the runner’s documentation. To save time, the booths only gave out the bibs to runners, after which runners were supposed to move to another station to check the bib. This is important to ensure that your timing chip is working well.
After staring at your name on the TV screen, it’s time to move to the other station to collect the actual race pack.
Signages to direct runners towards the expo
Runners can leave their contact here and await for singlet exchange
The usual suspects who should be present in the race expo were all around. Anything required for running such as apparels and accessories were all present in great variety. I used to think that running is one of the most inexpensive sports around.
Runners shopping in expo
Race pack this year seems to have plenty of items (if you count them). However, the actual useful items are minimal. The heat rub were passed to me by the sponsors while visiting their booth, thus the actual useful item of the race pack is the bag itself!(singlet excluded)
Race Pack
Day before Race Day
This is one of the race which would ruin the entire weekend’s plan. Many runners would try to catch a nap during Saturday daytime, this meant that there will not be any outings. After the race, I believe all runners will hit the sack after the washing up and it would be afternoon by the time one woke up.
After saying so much, basically there aren’t much to be done the day before this race. Carbo-load for lunch and dinner, try to catch as much sleep as possible and head out to the start point while everyone is getting ready to sleep.
There are other mind-upsetting things going on in the mind as well. Examples are: Are my training adequate as I have never train running past midnight, Would the Zzzz monster come looking for me midway through the race, etc. Joined the Sundown Marathon since 2008 (inaugural year) thus I should know this well enough, still question would start popping out during this time of the year.
Race Day
Set off early to prevent myself from dozing off if I were to remain in the comfort of my home. Reached the race precinct 1.5hours earlier than my flagged off time and all I can say was, “It’s so crowded!”. I saw 5km runners sitting around and resting, the 10km runners started to swarm into the race precinct, the 21km runners getting ready to walk to the start pen and there were some Full Marathon runners looking around at the booths.
Swarm of runners walking to the race precinct
As I reached the race precinct, the prominent cage-like structure where dodgeball competition was on-going. It looked very competitive with teams all warming up in the cage. Wanted to stay on to watch the games but I decided to go into the race precinct for photo taking instead.
Dodgeball teams warming up
Another view of the Dodgeball games
Do you agree that the race is indeed a little crowded? Race baggage is in the far background
There were signages around the area and it was critical for runners to ensure that no one would walk that additional miles unnecessarily. Save those for the run instead.
Adequate signages in the race precinct
Runners walking to the race precinct all prepared for the big race. Did I see someone familiar in the photo?
Walking into the race precinct, many lighted up booths were seen popping out in the dark. It’s good as one can easily recognise every individual booths and decide if walking over was necessary. The most important “booth” was the hydration as I was perspiring while walking to the race precinct. There were isotonic drinks as well, most importantly they were cold. Shoik is the word.
This is what runners need most at race precinct espeically in such humid night
My friend who were taking part in the half marathon race told me there were toilets at the start point area. That was why I skipped the longer queues at the baggage area and headed straight for the portable toilets at the start point area. Thanks Lawrence for the good information.
There were portable toilets outside and inside race precinct area.
Wanted to take this photo to show how crowded the race precinct is. A little blur though.
There were many booths and I took this to show the row of booths available. Something I was keeping a lookout for the entire night was the weather. Look at the one piece of cloudy floating by with clear sky, it was a relief looking at this.
Booths lining the race precinct
More booths! Saw the balloons? For the pacers..
Then I realised that this race has become a real attraction to many local and overseas runners. I saw a lot of Chinese nationals, Hong Kongers, Indonesians, Malaysians and many Eurasians as well.
Not surprised to see tour agencies collaborating with races to bring international runners to this race.
Wanted to take a photo of the lighted up item but it didn’t show up in this photo. It shows photos of the race ambassador, Soh Rui Yong, Singapore’s local elite runner
Other than the above, there were other photo opportunities for runners. The photo below had a Limitless word (slogan for this year’s race) and runners were queuing up for a chance to walk behind the transparent material so that a nice photo could be taken with the runner seemed to be in-sync with the word.
More photo capturing opportunities
The stage where many runners were seen climbing onstage for photo-taking too
I sat around and waited for around 12am before walking to the start pen as the start pen supposed to be opened at 12.01am. I overheard the emcees mentioning that the Half Marathon race start time was delayed but I just continue to walk over although I would expect the start pen for the Full Marathon to be delayed too. As expected, crowds were mingling at the entrance of the start pen and 5mins…10mins…15mins past and the start pen had not opened yet.
At the right of the photo shows runners gathering at the entrance of start point
I soon joined the crowd as I wanted to be at the right pen for the time I was aiming (in the end, I was standing at the wrong pen!).
Runners in front of me waiting patiently for pen to open.
I was in the middle of the entire crowd and soon it started to get real crowded as the pen opening was delayed by a good 15-minutes. Can you see the end point of the runners queue? I can’t.
Loads of runners waiting for the start pen to open
After allowed to the starting pen, I realised I was very far from the start point. I didn’t realise that there were different timing for different pen. The crowd was so intensed that it might have blocked off the timing indication on the board.
Me and the start point
The night was rather humid and warm and my hands were mostly moist and thus I did not take my camera out for photo-taking. I was too tired towards the end as well, trying to struggle to complete the last 10km with sniggering phlegm issues which created lots of them while I was breathing hard. Unsure why. If anyone knew anything about it, do message me.
I was in wave 3 and was flagged off around 12.45am. The uphill task came early at 3km mark where the uphill was about 200m long with gradient challenging enough to see many runners stooping to a walk on the slope. When there’s a uphill, there will be a downhill so I continue to charge upwards.
Once again, I still could not understand why there were so many runners in front of me who were walking at the…2nd km? You were queuing in a pen in front of me so it was expected of you to run faster than me, but there were quite a handful of walkers when I ran past them in the 2km mark. Standing in the wrong pen was the first mistake, walking at this juncture could mean that one was inadequately trained. If injured, I would expect the runner to be at the rear pens.
The hydration points were adequately stocked with cups filled up all the time when I reached the station. This was something there had improved compared to the past series where there were instances where water stations ran out of hydration. The isotonic drink was cold and it gave a confidence boost to me. That was why I always look forward to hydration station but realised some of the stations only had water. I have heard from my friends that hydration were inadequate for the first half of the race and I thought I was lucky to miss out these chaos.
The route had a couple of u-turns which I was mentally prepared after studying the route. The route had more than half of it in East Coast Park where the terrain was flat and forgiving. The route in Gardens By the Bay area was more of a mental test to me as there was nothing much to see while the Zzz monster and fatigue started their attack on runner’s weakened bodies.
Surprisingly, the volunteers who were mostly (or all) students were enthusiastic and energetic. Giving supports by clapping and shouting out cheers which I think this was one of the races where the cheers from volunteers were good. I wonder what did the organiser tell them to give them the energy to do this. The cheers subsided after 3am where tired volunteers sat down, quietened down or simply laid on their backs to catch some rest. still kudos to them for volunteering for the event.
As usual, there were no bystanders cheering for the runners as it was in a run in the wee hours. Even in the East Coast Park where many stayed over, most were already sleeping. The run was indeed lonely with runners keeping each other company physically.
There were not many muscle rub stations/volunteers also. I saw a few but towards the end of the route, more were expected but I think there was inadequate of muscle rub in this part where more runners were in need. I witnessed a few runners asking volunteers for it but ended up walking away disappointed.
I struggled at after the 32km mark, was running steadily for the first 32km at a conservative pace to keep legs fatigue minimum and to get ready for a faster finish. In the end, my breathing was hastened and each deep breath felt inadequate for the body to absorb. Wonder if I ate too much energy gel or drank too much hydration, but well I got to live with it and struggled to ensure I complete the race using a run/walk strategy.
Upon reaching the barrage, runners were invited to another slope challenge to ascend circularly up the barrage top. At that point of time, most of the runners were walking up steadily.
At the end point, runners got to choose their finisher tee sizes based on first come first served basis. This has been the tradition for this race since it started thus knowingly, I tried to complete the race fast enough to receive the well deserved finisher tee of my intended size. Collection was a breeze, with bananas and isotonic drink first before the medal and finisher tee.
What a relief that the race has finally ended!!
Post Race
After gobbling up the bananas and finishing the isotonic drink, I saw the massage tent nearby with a rather short queue and decided to join the queue.
Queuing for my well deserved massage of fatigue legs who just completed 42.195km!!
Something which I do no like about this race was the post race precinct where it’s rather quiet. The other categories runners had returned home and only left the tired Full marathon runners who were mostly resting and “stoning”. The buzz I saw before the race was a 100% change at the post race precinct.
Tired runners sitting down to rest the tired legs
A can of isotonic was not adequate and I had to visit this booth several times to refill my cup. The drink was not disappointing as it’s cold again.
Volunteers manning the hydration booth
Although legs were tired, but photograph comes first!
I was my 7th Sundown race and 5th Sundown Full Marathon. Everytime as I was travelling to the race precinct, waiting at the start pen and running in the race, I would always tell myself that this is really going to be the last Sundown Full Marathon as the race had too many difficult and tiring junctures if you consider them carefully. Leave this difficult task to 2017 then while I share with you the medal and finisher tee photos below.
The lanyard of medal has quite a nice design with the race name succinctly printed on it. The medal shape was quite unique as well which look like a shield. The medal can be considered as coloured medal with the red colour word “LIMITLESS” and green colour “42.195km” printed outstanding on it.
The lanyard was well design and coupled with the near circular medal, it goes well.
Although the design was nice but when I took a closer look at the medal, there were some flaws which makes it disappointing. The lanyard was not sewn properly with the cloth not aligned before sewing. There were many scratches and chipped off of the medal face. a photo speaks a thousand words.
Front of medal
The rear of medal is not any better. Look at the side edge of the medal. I think there is no need for me to describe much about the defects. It is a little disappointing as the reward for running this distance wasn’t justified. The date of this race strictly should be 29th May instead as the race started after midnight.
Rear of medal
The design of finisher tee is simple and material is similar to other tees of this brand which has gained popularity in many race locally. The colour is different from the past year’s races which were predominantly black.
The rear of the tee is sweetly designed with the distance, slogan and race name tucked in a rectangular form.
Front of finisher tee
Rear of finisher tee
Ratings
A) Race expo: 4/5 (many booths, categories separated, checking of bibs caused a bit of jam)
B) Race Precinct: 3/5 (cold isotonic available, too crowded with all categories together at certain time, chaotic before race pen opens, race timing delayed)
C) Medal/Singlet/Finisher tee: 3.5/5 (singlet and finisher tee acceptable, medal was below par)
D) Post Race: 3.5/5 (quiet and very different compared to before the race, cold isotonic)
E) The Race: 3/5 (volunteers enthusiatic, low supporter race with almost no one else along route, hydration with cold isotonic, loopy route)
Overall Ratings: 3.4/5
Another year of Sundown Marathon conquered! What lies ahead for 2017 is really unknown as my thoughts now still skew towards taking the shorter distances for this race. Another Full Marathon recorded in my portfolio, Yay. It’s time to start analysing the timing to see what went wrong and how not to make the same mistake again.
Autumn Runner 
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