Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2018

2018 marks the 17th anniversary the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

As early as 2.00AM in the Sunday’s morning, I woke up and got ready for my Standard Chartered Singapore half marathon. About two weeks ago, I bought the bus ticket to the Singapore F1 Pit Building, where the starting point was located, and it departed from my selected location. 

The bus came on time. Unfortunately, many of us who did not print out the bus ticket and wanted to use the mobile app called Share Transport to show our bus tickets, failed to load the application. 

My wild guess was many of us trying to login to their application and the server could not take the load. Yah, being a professional in IT, this is what usually we will think when an application or a website cannot load.

The bus driver did not check on us and allowed us to board the bus. Well, being a honest human living in Singapore, I hope all of us were genuine people who bought the bus ticket. The departure time was delayed and I still able to reach there before 4.00AM, where two of my friends were waiting.

At this wee hours, the city became so crowded with people and the roads were jammed with cars, taxis and buses. The bus did not drop us right next to the Singapore F1 Pit and we needed to do some walking crossing the road. It was a good warm up session with the crowd.

Fortunate enough, they split the lanes to “express” and “drop baggage”. Due to security check, the runners with bags have to be checked before walking into the baggage area, while those without bags like me can just use the “express” lane.

There was nothing much to see at the starting point at the Singapore F1 Pit building. Around 4.15AM, they started to announce the Pen A, B and C were to close soon. After last year bad experience with choosing a pen which I have to walk for 15 minutes to the designated pen at the Orchard Road, I decided not to bother the completion time during the registration. The completion time is used to determine which pen you will be flagged out. 

It took me a while before I finally able to move into the starting point as people were started walking in after the announcement was made. I was at pen C and I flagged off at 4.44AM according to my Fitbit. 

This year the running route for half marathon was different than the usual one, no more running at the ECP (East Coast Park). We ran to the west, passed through the city, where the War Memorial Park, St. Andrew Cathedral, Fullerton Hotel and Lau Pa Sat are located, before we turned into Keppel Road. 

From the Tanjong Pagar Old Railway Station, we ran up to the West Coast Highway. It was a very boring straight highway. Okay la, not very straight but nothing to see when we were facing west. However, when I finally made a U-turn at the 13th KM along the highway, the whole journey changed. My next 4KM along the highway was accompanied by the beautiful late sunrise. It was my best memory for my entire half marathon.

I made a few stops along the way for water stations. At one of its water stations, they provided bananas and gels. I chose to eat the gel than the banana. The gel will take effective faster than the banana to “generate” energy for me.

Also, I stopped by to do stretching and of course to enjoy the majestic sunrise and tagged along some people as my pacers. Of course, along the way, I saw marathon pacers passed by me. 

Unfortunately, this wonderful scene could only be my memories. I did not take picture of it as many other people did. And ya, how many chances you can take a sunrise picture at the middle of the highway without endanger other people?

Come to the most historical moment, after exited the highway, I ran back to the city toward the ending point. This was where the half marathon and the full marathon started to split their way. Right at the 77 Robinson Road, after went through about 19KM of the marathon, suddenly I could not move any further, not even slow walk. 

Yes, I reached my maximum capacity of running, jogging, brisk walking or even slow walking. I took a break and tried to do some stretching to relax my muscle. It did not work out well. It seemed bad but I still insisted to continue. For every steps I took, I prayed. With the God’s blessing, I managed to reach somewhere near Fullerton Hotel again.

It was scorching hot by then. I started to hear people running from the back, shouting, “Don’t walk, just final 1KM”. Then, I realized, the end point was not too far from where I was walking. Since, I felt much better then, I decided to slowly pace my jog up to Esplanade. From behind, I heard, “Excuse me, excuse me”. I was wondering, why needed to shout when the whole road was open for us to run! 

Hah, it was a group of 2hr 45m pacers for half marathon. I thought they have left earlier than me as I did not notice seeing them during my journey. I felt motivated after seeing them, they seemed to be delayed. Anyway, I followed their pace for a while running up all the way to turn right into Raffle Avenue.

Then, I started to lose energy and I knew I needed to slow down and paced again. Finally, I gained back my momentum to jog for the last 150 meters away to the finishing lane. Along the way, plenty of photographers readily to take photographs of us. I posted a few since I was jogging on the left lane. 

I crossed the finishing lane at gun time 3:20:38 at the floating point area. Hooray! Congratulations!

I walked to collect my medal, but cannot collect the finisher T which is meant for full marathoners, then I walked over to the Singapore Flyer’s area to get the cold tower, cold mineral water. I lost all my energy then, that I could not even open the bottle of drink. Lucky, the boys helped me out.

I gulped down half a bottle of it. I started to forget where was the last water station did I stop. Then, I started to feel tired and unable to walk, but I still need to walk pass the whole stretch of water station, then collected my cold isotonic drink, the banana and I skipped the Lays’ potato chips to the resting area. 

So many people around there and I chose to stand behind a board, a Thank You board for the volunteers. Oh, well… It is better you save the money making those boards and go paperless. At least you can get people feedback of your entire event. 

Nevertheless, the board helped me to block the sun while I was drinking my drinks and eating the banana. It was a good spot to take picture with Singapore Flyer. A few people came and asked me to help them to take pictures. With my skill, of course, I gave the best shot the full wheel of fortune and half body with their medal. (Need to squat a little bit ya).

I left the game village shortly after that without waiting for my friends and headed back home. I wanted to take a good shower and rest for half a day. At the MRT station, I went to the washroom to do a quick “shower” before I made my journey back home. I just did not want to smell smelly in the train. Hehe…

At home, I did my laundry, took my shower and I started to feel super hungry. I decided to walk to the market for my breakfast, yes, it was still in the morning. While walking, I noticed my legs began to pain, the after effect of running for long distance. So, I went back home after that, put on some muscle rub and cushioned my legs before I slept. 

I slept for another 4 hours and woke up, replied some messages and felt hungry again. I went out again to buy some grocery to cook my dinner that night. Well, I felt my both of my legs got better after some rest and I continued to do more stretching after dinner.

Two days after the marathon, I felt everything back to normal and I was able to walk normally. Still remember two of my friends ran for the full marathon? I asked them to bring their medal for me to take a picture. The medal is huge and heavy as compared with my half marathon medal.

Hall of Fame 2017

Hall of Fame 2017.

With the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2017 ended earlier this month, my Hall of Fame 2017 is completed. This year, I ran for 8KM, 10KM and two 21.1KM. They are the CCK Big Farm Walk and Run, Sundown, 2XU and SCMS. It is a real excitement to run in these marathons especially when I feel being able to run and complete the race for the prestigious marathons in Singapore.

Why I want to run a marathon when we can just run in the park for free?
Well, it really gave me a different experience when running alone in the park, running alone during the race and running with thousands of people. The race’s route, weather, atmosphere and people are different during each race.

For example, running for an half marathon, the race will begin around 4.30AM in the morning. It is cooler and windy when run at this hour as compared to a 10KM marathon which usually begin at 7.30AM when the sun arises.

Besides that, it tests our endurance during the race, determination to complete the race and satisfaction and sense of achievement upon crossing the finishing line. The feeling of running toward the finishing line is great especially you are cheered by strangers standing along the street and keep telling you, “it is almost there, 100m away, come on keep running” and when you are very close to the finishing line, someone will shout “just another 5 seconds of running!”. Sometimes, we could get consolation prize when the person next to you congratulate for your victory.

Having group picture after the marathon to show off medal.
It is a great moment to be captured and shared in the Facebook and Instagram. Unfortunately this SCMS, we did not manage to take a group picture together at the race village when my running partners flagged off at different timing then mine due to two of them were at the baggage deposit area for an hour. Anyway, we are planned to meet up for the post marathon dinner or pre-Christmas gathering, it is just giving ourselves an excuse to meet up again!

Do I stop at each kilometer signboard to take picture?
Yes, in my earlier years when I started to run and I got to know a friend at one of the signboard when I ran for Standard Chartered KL in 2015. However, right now I did not do it anymore. These signs reminds me that I have completed 1st quarter of the race,  1/3 of the race, 1st half of the race and 3/4 of the race which give me a positive thought to complete the race with determination.

I will feel of signing up for the next marathon each time I completed one.
Yes, I am keeping a close check on the RunSociety for the next half of the year 2018’s marathons. I am not too sure if I will still continue running for Sundown or 2XU for next year, however, I am interested to run for other marathons which I have not tried before. One of it is the Income Eco Run 2018.

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore

#scms2017. This is the hash tag for this year Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore.

My last participation in the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore was in Year 2015, few months after I completed my Standard Chartered Marathon Malaysia. Both were 10KM marathons.

This year I signed up with my three ex colleagues who wanted to run for half marathon after our 2XU. Four of us registered when the early birds registration opened and with one of us has the Standard Chartered’s credit card, we got extra discounts. It was sort of a good deal with all these discounts. Back then, we would have six months to practise and prepare ourselves well.

Unfortunately, after my 8KM Big Farm Run at Choa Chu Kang in October, I did not practise for the half marathon because I fell sick with stomach flu for a week and my body got weaker.

I focused on my food intake a week before the marathon by taking mainly the pasta, breads and oats with milk.

The night before the marathon, I went to have a great Japanese food with my cousin and my aunt. Again, I loaded plenty of carbohydrates and the salmon which are recommended food for running and pre-marathon preparation. On the same night, I went to my friend’s house to stay overnight. She stayed pretty near to the city and we could walk to the starting point.

It was 4.00AM in the Sunday’s morning, we walked on the closed, emptied road toward Orchard Road, where the full and half marathons would be flagged off. At this wee hours, I could see people who just finished partying were sleeping or sitting at the bus stop to wind off while thousands of people heading down the road to run 21KM and 42KM marathon. What kind of silly thing to be done!

Even without the practise, I was grateful that my first 8KM with my friend’s friend and able to complete the marathon in the end. It is not my personal best timing at all.

I was able to surpass my 13KM marker before my legs started to stress up at 15KM. Also, I was able to surpass my 18KM marker before I completely walked at 19KM to 100m before the finishing line. I love running this marathon because we run like a king on four-lane roads.

Sundown Singapore & 2XU Singapore Marathon

It was last year when I was told that the Sundown Singapore Marathon’s 10th Anniversary special rate and 2XU early birds’ special rate with additional polo T-shirt giveaway for the loyal runners of Year 2015 and 2016. The race dates of both runs were just a week apart. My friend and I were discussing whether to join both of the marathons. However, with the race date so close to each other, I was not confident enough to run both half marathons.

Neither my friend did. Then, we both decided to run for 10KM for Sundown Marathon and 21.1KM for 2XU. We both registered ourselves on the same day and same time.

Since, I have run for Sundown’s half marathon in year 2015 (For the Tribe), so it would be good enough for me to run a 10KM this year just to complete the medal collection. I would not be able to get the Sundown’s finisher T-shirt because it is meant for full marathon.

Meanwhile, for 2XU, it is only those who signed up for 21.1KM half marathon would be entitled for the additional polo T-shirt and that was their highest category for 2XU marathon. Another surprised gift was a pair of sock for those super early birds. I think it was just to lure more people to sign up 2XU than Sundown.

And, I was definitely going for half marathon to get my 2XU’s finisher T-shirt for this year which was in rose gold lining and black in colour. I got my first 2XU’s finisher T-shirt in Year 2015 which was in yellow lining and black in colour.

I came down to Singapore just to run these two marathons and reached Singapore in the evening of Friday, 24th March. I went to the Marina Square with hope that I could collect the race pack for 2XU but I was told the queue was very long and wasting time. Yet, indeed it was and I gave up, then walked to the F1 Pit Building to collect the Sundown’s race pack instead. There was queue too and my side was pretty slow.

There was a lot of bad comments about Sundown’s management for this year event especially on the poor management of the race pack collection. As for myself, the queue was fairly okay because I spent 1.5 hours before my turn. However, I was pretty sad with the medal’s quality when I compared to the Year 2015’s finisher medal.

Let me show you the finisher T-shirt and the medal for the 2XU Marathon Year 2017. I will update my post with a picture of both finisher T-shirt in which I personally prefer the cutting and design of the past year.

People have been asking what my reasons for paying so much and joining the marathons after all, there are many parks in Singapore which are free to run and also there are many park connectors which allow us to run for kilometers without a cost. Not only that, sometimes, you will see people join the Spartan race. Why?

To be honest, I do not have an answer which can tell people, the greatest of joining the marathons. It is some sort of suffer whenever I have to run 10KM or more, I would think that I can just easily give up my run after 5KM or 6KM on my normal running routine. Then, why?

I think my answer will be, the satisfaction of running toward the finishing line while people around are cheering up for you to push harder for the next 10 meters or so. I think it is all about the sportsmanship’s spirit that I can feel when I run toward the finishing line. The shouts from those strangers who have the same aims and goals as us motivate me to push to my max limit to cross the line with my best timing.

Oh well, it is worth to do it when it is just for a short 10 meters distance? Hmm, well I do not have a perfect answer too but it is worth especially when you get extra bonus such as being the top 3 winners, winning prize from lucky draw if any or get to know a new friend who has the same hobby as you. Back in Year 2014 during the Standard Chartered KL Marathon, I met a new friend who run for 10KM too at the 9KM signage board. As an amateur runner, I loved to stop by to take pictures and post to Instagram, this is one of those pictures I took during the run.

And, I do love the feeling after the marathons, especially the time when i organize my medals and think about how to display my hall of fame. Yes, some people may say, medals, trophies and certifications can be custom-made outside but what the fun is? You must go through all the obstacles, sweats and the pain after the marathon before you can understand the greatest of running a marathon.

There is always a lesson to be learned from each run and a beautiful reward awaiting us in front, the sunrise (the beginning of new day).