OSIM Sundown Marathon 2017

Review

So it is the largest night run of the year – OSIM Sundown Marathon 2017. Together with Andy (@sengkangbabies) & Nick (@nickpan.runs), the 3 Daddies completed our individual categories with pride.

Andy took on the crown of the race, running his maiden Full Marathon (42.195km) and completing it within 6 hours! Super inspired by our Marathon Dad!
Nick added the jewel for us, running in the 10km race and did his Personal Best under 50mins! He is now the official Flash Dad among us!

And me? I took on the Half Marathon (21.1km) and did pretty well too. Completing in 2 hours 19mins, not my best but second best, so still an awesome result.

With around 27,000 runners coming together for this year’s Sundown Run, it was truly a #SleepCanWait testimonial. But probably one of the biggest highlight for me was to be one of the 12 Sundown Ambassadors, helping to raise funds for my chosen beneficiary – Beat’Abox Group Pte Ltd (@beataboxsg).

There were a lot of great ideas from the Organizing Committee, but some times the saying is true – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In conjunction with the organizer’s effort to cut down on wastage (uncollected bibs), they introduced the idea of printing running bib on-demand. This created quite an uproar with the participants who for some waited more than 2 hours just to collect their race pack, some even in the rain (as collection was done in the open carpark area behind F1 Pit Building).

By God’s grace, I wasn’t able to make it for Day 1 collection and went on Day 2 instead. The situation was slightly better and I spent about 50 mins to get my race pack.

One important life lesson I learnt while queuing for the race pack.
True sportsmanship doesn’t start on the race day, it is in our daily behaviours.
I know the participants have the right to be angry for waiting in the drizzle, for the long queue, for the insufficient collection counters, etc. But some of them were outright rude and uncalled for when they started to be angry towards the part-timers who worked equally hard to make things right.

So for the records .. a big THANK YOU to all the part-timers who assisted in any way, from collection to actual day.

The place was readied for the fringe events and sponsors are getting ready for the runners and supporters.

Despite the admin issues, the crowd was happy to enjoy a great night of fun and laughter.

A selfie with my running buddies for the night before the race.

One other privilege of being an Ambassador, we did not need to queue to enter the start pen. We were ushered from the side and went straight to the front. Quite an entry but quite intimidating too, especially when we see all the professional runners standing a few feet away.

It was a cool night, the 3 of us tried to stay together and pace each other, but I guess we sort of went solo after the 10km mark. I was trying to stay at my pace of 7mins/km.

The route was pretty ok, except for the last 3km when we had to run up the Sheares Bridge, that was the killer for most of us. I can practically see everyone walking at some point of the bridge. That stretch probably cost me to lose a few minutes of time, if not I may be able to meet my target of 2 hours 15mins.

Water points were well placed and sufficient. Given the experience of the organizing company, I guess this could be the minimum. However, the distribution of the bananas was not clearly indicated. It was done at the 9km mark, and after the race quite a few runners commented that they didn’t see it at all. I remembered it was under the Helix Bridge and the place was a bit dark. Maybe more lights and even a flashing sign would be good.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the run and the beautiful sceneries along the way .

 

I had a good sleep after the race =)

Thanks to Sundown Marathon for the opportunity to be part of your 10th year anniversary run. I have to say in all honesty, regardless of the areas that were dissatisfactory, the run was a success!

Looking forward to 2018!