Date: 1 June 2013
Venue: F1 Pit Building, Marina, Singapore
Distance: 10km (Garmin: 10.1km)
Timing: 50:43 (Gun); 50:34 (Chip); 50:34 (Garmin)
Pace: 5:01 min/km (Garmin)
Website: www.sundownmarathon.com
Wow 5 years already?!?!?! [sorry no recap for 2009] I’m getting old! Intending to keep this short (we’ll see about this!) since it has been dissected, reviewed, probed and whatnot for too many times. Same organizer and {almost} similar route – nothing new. Let’s go.
Instead of a single night event, this was a 2 day event with the 10km and 21km on Friday night/Saturday morning and the full on Saturday night. I’m guessing that this is to ease some of the congestions experienced in the previous year. This was a loop course starting and finishing at the F1 Pit Building in Marina and as with the previous edition featured a “party-like” atmosphere with movies being shown, mini-ish expo, games etc.
This is one of the bigger/major running events in Singapore and the region; so there were lots of local runners as well as those from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines etc.
Route map from their website
Km1-3
Flag off was at 00:30 on Saturday and it was hot, warm, muggy and humid out there despite the earlier downpour. I was really hoping that it was a Cat 3 and they’ll call off the event – hah! just so I didn’t have to find an excuse to skip it. No. Kidding. I was lethargic, tired and fighting zzz monsters. No bueno, rain stopped by 8:30-9 pm. Le sigh.
Hmm…despite a light dinner of focaccia bread and hummus at an even earlier hour, dinner didn’t settle before the flag off. Nor did it during or after run. Only got hungry just before heading to snooze-land at 3am. Looks like things weren’t going my way: muggy + bloating + zzz monsters. Crowded start for the first km heading to Nicoll Highway; first hydration station around km1.5-2; first switchback after that. Km3 was straight out on the highway and soon we saw the race leaders on the opposite side.
Km4-6
Next switchback and we move along the highway onto the streets on the edge of Kallang, Geylang ec. Seriously, this section was a blur for me.
Km7-10
Same stretch as last year, more or less, ie the darkish Kallang Park though I think this year it was a longer stretch. Stumbling onto couples out for a date night – dudes and dudettes…wrong night! The constant pounding on the hard tiled bike path was taking a toll on my soles and slowed down considerably in the last km. Momentarily. Until a guy came shouting encouragement to his friend who was slightly ahead of me – man, I needed that boost too. And we’re finally out of the dark woods – short stretch on the F1 circuit into the finishing chute.
Pros:
a) Ok-ish organization.
b) Distance markers every km although they were off by a bit on my Garmin and it’s really down to me not running the tangents.
c) Hydration stations with both H2O and 100Plus every 1.5-2km (this is only applicable for the 10km route because I gathered that they ran out of both H2O and 100Plus for both the 21km and 42km – yeah 2 nights in a row! Thought they would have learnt their lesson! Obviously not!) and at the start and finishing point. At the finish, you’re given a bottle of H2O and a can of chilled 100Plus, in addition to a banana.
d) Awesome-sauce medal – probably the largest I’ve received so far.
e) Great cheers from the road marshals and hydration station volunteers.
f) Split route for the 10km and 21km and a different day for the 42km meant less congestion. Plus with the 21km starting an hour ahead.
Cons:
a) The warm up session this year was kinda lame – didn’t feel as much jive as the previous years.
b) No call out of your name as you enter the finishing chute – this was one of the few things I liked in the previous years ie feeling like a million dollars for just that 2 seconds!
c) Kallang Park bike/run path continues to be poorly lit and the organizers could have put up additional lighting. Yes, I nearly missed or rather nearly ran into a parallel path to the correct one. Thank goodness they had the race marshals there. They literally saved me vs Run For Life.
Photo log:
Goodie bag – just the event vest and lesser-than-usual vouchers (not that I’m complaining!)
Swag
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