The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon promised a unique race experience in one of Asia’s most scenic cities. Did it deliver?
The race was on Saturday night, but between that, watching the U2 concert the next night, and then flying home the morning after that, it didn’t leave me a lot of time to edit my race vlog together. I only managed to do that last night into the wee hours of the morning, so I hope you enjoy this! (Sorry for the shaky GoPro video.)
I recorded my vlog thoughts right after the race so you see that captured in the vlog above, but I also ruminated about the experience some more. Here are a few more thoughts.
A second home for Filipino runners: Aside from the fact I travel quite frequently to the Lion City and sort of know it very well for a tourist, it is quite close to the Philippines and its races are well-attended by Filipinos. I was pleasantly surprised to bump into friends new and old at the SCSM kit claiming, at the start line, and even at the hostel I stayed at. Then add to the mix the Filipinos who live and work in Singapore, and it brings such welcome familiarity and a feeling of home away from home. It’s no surprise that Filipinos made up the second-largest contingent of participants. BONUS: Ironman hired Whit Raymond and Chiqui Reyes as part of their race commentary and announcer team, so having those two familiar voices really helped calm me! “Every little thing is gon’ be all right…”
Pre-race amenities: The F1 Pit next to the Singapore Flyer is quite spacious, which allowed runners to find their own space to do their final preparations both physically and mentally for the challenge ahead. There were also two well-stocked hydration tents with water and 100 Plus Active (which, different from its carbonated variant, is actually good!). Portable toilets stretched from end to end, with a few more hiding behind some tents. Bag check was super efficient as well: we were required to use the provided plastic transparent drawstring bag with our bib number stickers on them, and these made for quick retrieval afterwards.
The view of Singapore at night: This was an okay selling point, but once we were out of the Marina Bay area it wasn’t super scenic — just tall buildings in the financial district, elevated highways, the lights on the cable cars running between Harbourfront and Mount Faber, etc. I know a lot of locals were annoyed at the road closures as well since it ran right up into when people were trying to get home from their Saturday excursions.
Efficiency over sentiment: Crossing the finish line was a quick affair, and I was so happy I got a shout-out from both Whit and Chiqui as I ran through the chute.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t even head back to them after I crossed the finish line at the Float @ Marina Bay because we were relentlessly shunted forward and forward back to the starting line at the F1 Pit. We couldn’t even pause to take a photo with our medals against the night skyline featuring the Marina Bay Sands, ArtScience Museum, and Helix Bridge without an official or volunteer telling us to “keep moving forward”. Listen, only very few actually manage to place in the race; for the rest of us participants, it’s the memories and the photos we take to commemorate our personal achievement that we hold precious. I don’t see why they couldn’t at least offer some undisturbed space and a dedicated photo spot with the aforementioned sights in the background (there was enough space!).
Post-race logistics: I understand that SCSM is campaigning to become a World Marathon Major event, so the night run was a solution they came up with to the problem of the heat and humidity. Unfortunately, I think Singapore will be hot and humid no matter what time of day the race starts, hahaha!
However, the marathon/half-marathon gun start at 6pm means that many marathoners will finish close to or past midnight, and that’s when buses and trains stop running. With 50,000 participants in those two categories alone, the supply of taxis and Grab cars would be too scarce. SCSM organizers did offer ShareTransport, which are buses you can crowd-book. Unfortunately they don’t run very frequently and to very few drop-off points, so there were those of us who just booked hotels and hostels as close to the venue as possible so we could just walk home.
Another thing difficult post-race was getting food. I finished my half marathon sometime around 9pm (our Pen E started around 6:30pm) and after spending some time recovering and getting my checked bag back, there weren’t many restaurants and food halls still open in the area. I can only imagine the nightmare of marathon finishers trying to find food past midnight.
What if, to avoid the heat of the day, SCSM still started at night — but at midnight for the marathoners? Half marathon could start at 4am, 10K at 5am, and 5K at 5:30am. There’s less traffic in the city at that time, so fewer people would be affected by road closures. You could run the ShareTransport buses going to the race venue, but by the time people finished they could take public transport back home. And the hawker centers would be open! It’s something I hope the SCSM organizers can think about to make for a better ending to a challenging race.
Whew! This ended up longer than I thought. Overall, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 21K I ran last Saturday night was very memorable. It was a wonderful way to cap off my 10th year in running as well as my comeback after two years out of the sport.
