I ran my 5th Singapore Bay and Army Half Marathon today in a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 53 seconds. While the weather ws cool and breezy, the race management was BAD. The race director(s) were probably army personnel who had never thought of how the route would be run with 10,000 runners and made poor errors of judgement. My thoughts :
1. The start at 6.30 am was fine but there were approximately 10,000 runners doing the 21km and from the start, we headed down from Espanade Bridge down Shenton Way and barely 500 m into the race, we were running through a Construction Site!
Yes, construction workers from Bangladesh,China and India were on either sides of the new Marina Boulevard cheering us on. NUTS.
2. The roads cordoned off were only 1 to 2 lanes at some points so it was very squeezy and we were bumping into each other as well as elbowing or maneuvering round the slower runners.
3. Water Points - Poorly managed by the various army units; they underestimated the number of runners and even as I was in the faster 25% of the runners, they were running out of water. They had the cups and the water but did not estimate properly how many cups to place on the table. Many times, runners DON'T WANT to hang around waiting for the water to be poured. Wastes time.
Worse still, the umbrellas of the water points all had 100 plus signs but NO ISOTONIC DRINKS.
4. Streetside festivities - Its more of a distraction rather than a booster ; too few and far between. Give me the Cheerleaders anytime.
5. 14 km to 17.5 km - I don't understand this route at all. They opened a new road hardly tarred,narrow and worst of all, with potholes, nothing but cleared land on either side. No supporters, no water points, no nothing. Felt like something out of
army trekking. We should stick to the road and forget the Marina Barrage segment.
6. Marina Barrage - Big deal, another land bridge. So what ?
Mr. Race Director - I wonder why I take part every year, spend $35.00 and go through all of this ?
3 comments:
Why u do the marathon? Perhaps to prove to yourself you are still young!
Wow, you did it again. But one year older. Strong!
Thanks for your kind comments.I run because its my hobby and I may one day make runnning part of my dream job.
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