Marathon 2023 Singapore

[Henoch Holverson]

Iwas on the keto diet for all my Auckland training and was even 100% keto during the race. I also did all my workouts fasted except for maybe some ketones/electrolytes in my water. I actually felt great during all my Auckland training on this diet (I describe my keto diet in detail in my Auckland marathon post).

Singapore Marathon 2019 was the first year they started the race at night. The official start time was 6pm. I had actually anticipated this being a good thing, as I hate waking up early in the morning.

Singapore Marathon is a huge event so everything was much more controlled. Every checked bag went through security screening and every starting pen was heavily staffed and controlled at the entry point. I actually wanted to be in starting pen C (4 hours to 4:15 hours) but since I registered late the fastest pen I could get a place in was pen E (4:45 to 5 hours). I thought I might be able to sneak into C anyway, but there was no chance.

The aid stations were also sucking time. At Auckland, the aid stations literally had 200-300 cups at each table pre-poured, stacked four or five high and ready to go. Volunteers held them out for you and you could just run past and grab them without even stopping.

This part of the race was pretty uneventful and just felt like a normal training run. The course was still crowded so trying to put on any speed would have still required some weaving through people, but nowhere near as bad as the first few kilometres.

As I hit the aid station, it was pleasantly empty. With the half marathoners gone, the course was now far less crowded, there was no more waiting for water or trying to push through the crowd. I downed two cups of 100 Plus and sucked down an energy gel I had in my race belt. I told myself to get all the sugar I could get.

When we hit the 40km aid station, I stopped and slug two cups of water. As I finished I saw him a few metres away, waiting for me. He motioned me with his head to get moving. He had fire in his eyes and I could tell he was ready to smash these next 2 km with a sledgehammer.

After taking a moment to catch our breath, we finally gave each other a hug and a fist bump. A few others finished just after us and we all enjoyed the moment with high fives and smiles and good jobs and well dones. All I can remember thinking is, what a motherfu*cker of a race. And how happy I was it was over.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors (AbbottWMM) entered into a long-term exclusive partnership with the Wanda Sports Group in 2017 giving them the exclusive rights to identify three major marathon events for potential inclusion in the AbbottWMM series by entering into the candidate race process.

Following the sale of The IRONMAN Group (who operates the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon) by the Wanda Sports Group, the Singapore race is no longer a part of that candidate process. Wanda Sports Group has the exclusive right to put forward these races.

In 2017, Singapore was announced as a candidate city for the Abbott World Marathon Majors, a series of the six largest and most renowned marathons in the world.[2] In 2019, the full- and half-marathons were held in the evening in order to fulfill criteria to be listed in the Abbott World Marathon Majors, instead of the usual flag off timing at dawn.[3] This led to a series of road closures which resulted in 3-hour long traffic jams around the city center on the race day itself as there were other major activities happening at the same time in the vicinity of the race.[4]

There are four separate categories of competition: the full marathon, the half marathon, the 10 kilometres run, and the 10 km wheelchair race. Furthermore, 10 km team competitions as well as a number of short running competitions for children.[5]

Prize money for the full marathon race is divided into three categories: the open prize (for all competitors), the Singapore prize (open to national competitors), and the veteran prize (which acts as a masters competition).[5]

Between 2004 and 2008, it was part of "The Greatest Race on Earth" series of road races, sponsored by Standard Chartered Singapore (the other three legs being the Hong Kong Marathon, Mumbai Marathon and Nairobi Marathon).[6][7]

The times recorded at the Singapore Marathon tend to be slower than those at other marathons as Singapore's climate is unusually hot and humid.[8] Kenyans Luke Kibet and Salina Kosgei are the men's and women's course record holders, respectively. The 2006 edition also acted as the country's national championships, with Elangovan Ganesan and Vivian Tan Yoke Pin taking the honours.

In 2020, Singapore Marathon moved its race event to a virtual format due to the advisories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] The virtual race format, titled "Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) Virtual Racing Series" is part of the SCSM Virtual Club initiative. Two new virtual races are made available each week for participation by runners all over the world.[10]

WHAT: This will be the last span in Singapore hawker marathon. Another aesthetically underachieving, possibly unappetizing-looking dish called Hokkien prawn mee (basically noodles stir-fried with prawn bisque) that became one of the few Michelin-blessed hawker dishes in Singapore.

Prawn mee one of those culinary souvenirs you take back home after traveling through South East Asia! Thanks for your spirited interpretation, everyone needs homely Asian comfort food in their recipe files. Good on yah L&P!

Physical races are finally back in full force with Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) 2022 taking the lead for Singapore racing calendar. This also mark my continuation of my race review blog to aid runners in selecting their races.

The SCSM physical race was last held in 2019 (race review 2019 edition) with a new timing in the evening. This year, the SCSM 2022 switches back to the early morning wee hours. There are certainly pros and cons to both timings and we will leave the comparison for another day.

It has been a good 3 years that I last trained for a Full Marathon distance and training has not been the smoothest. The restarted engine seemed a little rusty and some of the mechanics of the body and legs seemed to be less efficient as compared to previous years. Training for a full marathon takes a whole lot of discipline, mental and physical tolerance to complete them. Completing is just to get both the body and mind to be prepared for the smooth running of race.

The race expo was held in Marina Bay Sands over the past years and this year was indifferent. The similar entrance welcomes runners into the exhibition hall with a couple of security personnel overseeing the place.

I collected the race pack on the 1st day of the three day collection just after lunch. There was only a short queue which was cleared up by the time I walked through the maze. There were about 6-10 booths for each category (except for 5km and kids dash) which provided swift collection.

Right after the collection, runners were introduced to a large variety of merchandises related to running. There were 2 zones in particular and I would not go through the zones in detail but would pick out the major highlights from each zone.

The bus shuttle service is one of the key transport to the venue due to the 4.30am flag off as most of the public transport service were not in operation yet. There were various locations pick-up from the service provider and so far, I have not received any complains about the service. I do miss the times when the organisers worked with SMRT to start the train operation in the wee hours to transport loads of runners to the start point via MRT.

Runners who have met the criteria for 300km Club are able to pick up some freebies from this counter. The criteria to join the 300km Club is to accumulate more than 300km distance since 2010 race. Using pure mathematical calculation, one will require to run at least 8 full marathons from 2010 race onward to qualify for the club.

Many runners would be excited to find their names displayed on the board and post on their social media. This year was different from the past years where the names were written in alphabetical order, which is still quite challenging for runners to find their own name. This year, the names were in random and a lot of runners were crowding around and hoping lady luck will allow them to source for their own names. Seriously, how would you expect a runner to find their own name when its all in random? It might be printed according to runners registration for the event and was printed this way in convenience of the organiser. But it had provided runners the frustration searching high and low for their names in a sea of names.

The race pack this year was disappointing. It consists of a bib, transparent deposit bag, event singlet and a belt. The registration fees have been on a upward trend on a yearly basis but the race pack quality have declined a fair bit (refer to other SCSM race preview to see the vast difference!)

The recycled bag and water bottle is received from the 300km Club booth as an encouragement and benefit from joining the club. There is also a coin which was given for keep sake. There used to be a tee-shirt given in the 2017 year which is a good memory for runners to feel proud of joining the club.

It has been a while since the last physical race hence I was a little lost when preparing. I packed all the items to bring during race day as early as possible so that I will not miss out on any items. I avoided too much walking or standing on that day to give the body as much rest as possible.

One point that I could have missed out is to rest on bed about less than 1-hour prior to my carbo loaded dinner. This could be the problem which I faced during race day which I will touch on a little in the later part.

Upon reaching the race area at 3.30am, I could feel very light drizzle and luckily I brought my running cap with me which proved to be handy later on. The dark sky lit up occasionally by a streak of lightning seemed to be somewhere pretty far away. Prayers come to my head as I walk to the race village.

3a8082e126