Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2022
On the 4th December of 2022, I (together with my younger brother) took part in the SCMS Half-Marathon event. It was our first ever half marathon and we were really excited for it!
This is a review of my experience with the race. Hopefully, it will be useful information for anyone who is interested to sign up for the future editions.
Preparations
The SCMS organisers sent out lots of emails to hype up the excitement of participants. Those emails included training advice and promotional materials designed to help runners prepare for race day.
One cool thing was that the SCMS partnered with PUMA Pacers from Running Department to help runners train. Personally, my brother and I only attended one of the training session because we were lazy to drive all the way to East Coast Park in the early morning. However, looking back I think that we should have attended more of it because it was a great opportunity to meet other runners, seek advice from the PUMA Pacers who were much more experienced than us, and also a good way to “force” ourselves to commit to long runs in our training.
I felt that the training sessions were quite well organised. The PUMA Pacers held out signs for different pacing and participants were free to join any group that was running in the pace that they liked. In the training run that I attended, we ran in loops of 6km. Refreshments such as plain water and isotonic drinks were provided for us to take sips while we ran. The PUMA Pacers were all very friendly and during the run, one of them even blasted out nice music for everyone to enjoy.
Therefore, I highly recommend joining the training runs organised by SCMS.
Race Pack Collection
To be honest, for the cost of the event (~90 SGD per person), the Race Pack Collection was slightly disappointing. Unfortunately, i didn’t take a photo of it. But I recall that it contained the running singlet (which came slightly smaller than expected, but we were allowed to exchange for a different size), running bib, running belt and some promotional pamphlets.
I was expecting something more in the Race Pack due to the supposedly huge amount of sponsors and that this was one of the biggest running event in Singapore.
The Race Pack Collection location was at the Marina Bay Sands,
Sands Expo & Convention Centre Halls A & B. Collection was opened for around 3–4 days and I went on a weekday after work, so that there would be lesser people. In the exhibition hall, there were also many booths set up, featuring various sports companies selling running related goods as well as other 2023 marathon events.
Race day
The flag off time for the Half-Marathon Event was supposed to be 4.30am. The start line was at the F1 building pit.
On the 4th December, my brother and I woke up at 2am (we went to bed at 10pm the previous day). After waking up, we ate cereal and drank almond milk for our breakfast. Then, we left our house and reached the area at around 4am.
We parked our car at the nearby Suntec City Shopping mall. Actually, the SCMS organisers provided shuttle buses services for runners, where runners would be picked up at designated areas for a fee (I am not sure how much as I didn’t check). However, we decided to drive there for convenience and so that we could leave our belongings in our car instead of at the tent provided by the SCMS organisers.
Because it was considered midnight, most of the doors in the Suntec City shopping mall were closed and it took us a while to find out how to exit the mall to get to the F1 building pit.
Once we reached the area, we saw many other runners and started doing our warmups to prepare for the run. Unfortunately around 430am, heavy rain started to pour and thunder sounded in the sky. This resulted in the postponement of the race to 530am. For the entire one hour, everyone stood in the rain and wondered what time we could start running.
Fortunately, the heavy downpour soon subsided and turned into light drizzle. The organisers decided that it was good to start the race. By then, my shoes were all wet and I was drenched from head to toe. Still, I was feeling good enough to run.
At the start of the run, I saw a weird and funny sight, where quite a number of male runners suddenly went to the grasses at the side to pee. Perhaps nature was calling after 1 hour of standing in the rain. I thought it was kind of a weird behaviour and quickly ran on to avoid catching sight of anything gross.
Overall, the race went pretty well. The entire road was shut off and hence there was no vehicles. There were plenty of water refreshments, first aid stations along the way. I stopped by every single station to get my fuels.
The route’s scenery was pretty okay but i do think that perhaps there are other overseas running events that offer nicer scenery and cooler weather. During the run, I even ran past my work office at Anson road :p
Overall, the first 15km of the run went pretty well. I felt that I was able to catch my breath and was not too exhausted. However, at the 18km mark, I started feeling some pain in my left thigh. I think that it was the result of insufficient leg strengthening exercises and long run practices. Prior to this race, the longest distance I had ever done was 18km and hence, this was slightly expected. To avoid the pain, I slowed to a tortoise jog and many people overtook me during this time. I just kept telling myself to not give up and that I was reaching the finishing line soon. I even encountered a caucasian lady who gave me some words of encouragement.
During the run, my goal was to be ahead of the 2:15 pacing group as i was hoping for a finish time between 2 to 2:15 hours. Fortunately, throughout the entire race, the group did not catch up to me and I managed to achieve my goal :)
Once I crossed the finishing line, I followed the other runners to get my finisher medal and refreshments which included drinks, sweets and bananas. Then, I went to sit on a floor and relaxed my legs. At one point, I even experienced leg cramps but it went away after I did a few stretches and hydrated myself.
At the post race area, there were lots more booths and free gifts for handout. There was even a massage tent for tired runners. However, because of the queue, we did not bother going for it.
Thoughts
Overall, I have no regrets signing up for this event. Though I felt the pinch in my wallet, I am happy to be able to achieve my goal of running my first half marathon in 2022.
Looking forward for my next running event!
This article is also posted on another blog, which i recently started to log my running journey. https://liverungrow11.wordpress.com/ Feel free to drop by and share with me your thoughts :)
