With this sign posted in the race precinct, one would expect that it is a kids race. Kids Dash in Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) has been one of the key kids races in the Singapore running calendar. With physical races coming back alive, it is not shocking to see 2,000 kids toeing the start line in the SCSM 2022 Kids Dash edition.
The kids dash is a 650m race for kids of 2 year-olds to 12 year-olds. They are separated by different categories with kids of similar age group together and race themselves to the finishing point. The route is a straight forward route of 325m before a u-turn back to the start line.
Race Pack
I will talk about the race pack collection in a separate post in the main SCSM 2022 post.
The race pack consist of a blue event tee with the catch-phrase “Catch me if you can”. The water bottle is the only other useful item in the race pack. The rest are sunblock and a chocolate pie. All these are packed into a small reusable bag which can be useful for kids to wear for future races. Nothing too fanciful.
The Race
There is a hydration tent just outside the pen where kids and adults can hydrate themselves with water before the race. Kids were happy to play with the dispenser and some looked amazed at home water can be dispensed out by simply depressing a lever.
There was security check prior to entering the pen which is pretty swift using the hand held metal detector. This gives everyone a sense of security as large mass events are held. Although there was a queue laid back but I guess no one will complain about such a feature on site.
The kids, together with one accompanying adult were ushered into the starting block. As there was a slight drizzle at the start, everyone is hoping for the best weather outcome without downpour. Soon the drizzle went away and all kids were spared the “bathing” prior to a race.
At the start line, the loudest shouts from the kids were during the countdown where the emcee starts the countdown from “10, 9, 8, ….”. This is when I realised the vast difference from an adult race where no one will do the countdown but all are focus on their smart watches or prayers.
I will spare this race for any race reviews as a Kids Dash is mainly for the kids to experience healthy lifestyle by running and exercising. The joy of receiving a race medal upon completion of the race.
Medal
The medal was small and light which is suitable for the kids on their delicate necks.
The lanyard was designed in blue and green colour to match the theme of the event and matches well with the medal colour. If one take a closer look at the pictures on the lanyard, the resolution could be sharper. The lanyard was sewed after it goes through the “hole” attached to the back of the medal. The sewing could have been done better as the string was crooked and excess was not cut properly.
The medal is round with the lion/mermaid logo printed on it. Due to its small size, the “#SCSM 2022” was used instead of the full spelling of the words. There were some minor defects where dust particles can be seen on the medal (in between the ears of the lion) when the colour printing was in place which resulted in speckles of impurities protruding out. It’s not much of an issue though as one need to look at it closely under light.
Besides the sewing part highlighted earlier, the attachment of the lanyard :handle” shows traces of fine lines at the connection area. The printing of the company name is too big to my linking on the already small medal and took up a good 20% of the surface which is excessive in my point of view.
Overall the medal can be done with better quality with the improvement of a few of these pointers. Not a big deal in totality.
Possible Improvements
- Adhere to the categories starting time. There is a race start time for different categories according to their age. However, I noticed that there were different categories of kids in the same starting block. There could be various reasons such as some of them missing their start time while some might have reached earlier. The danger is that the older kids might knock over the younger kids as the running abilities are pretty different even with a year gap only.
- Wider end point. The start and end point are the same hence it would be better to segregate 50% space width for both the starting and ending width. Children running towards the end point would have to converge to a pretty small opening at the end point which might cause accidents to occur.
All in all, I am still quite satisfied with the organisation of the Kids Dash and will return for next year’s edition.
Autumn Runner 