Disclaimer: In return for a sponsored race slot by JustRunLah!, here’s my review of this race.

The Performance Series was to be a new running event amongst the many that have been organised in recent years. Furthermore, it wasn’t merely an isolated race but instead, a series of 5 running events and 1 stair-racing event. My expectation in exchange for registration fees is a well organised race, hence I was hesitant in signing up for anything new (as often, there comes a degree of inexperience). It was only after being offered a sponsored race slot that I decided to give it a try – and how did it fare? Read on to find out!

As always, do look out for the font in italics regarding aspects of a race that I deem are possibly important to runners – whether they are competitive or non-competitive.

Pre-Race Matters
With the intent to make participation suitable for people of differing physical background, there were 3 different race categories. A competitive 10km race and two non-competitive categories – the 5km and 2.5km race. Participants could choose to sign up for individual races (of this series) or enjoy discounts by purchasing registration for a bundle of 3 or all 5 races.

Race Entry Pack Collection (REPC) took place 2 weeks before the event, from 16-17 April 11am-7pm at City Square Mall. I happened to arrive just before 1pm and it seemed like it was a mistake. The queues were lengthy – my waiting time was 40mins (at least it was accurately estimated by a volunteer). That was the longest I had ever had to wait for an REPC. There were 6 collection counters operating at maximal capacity. I was reminded that as a participant, it was certainly inadvisable to proceed for collection shortly after REPC begins. By the time I was about to leave, it seemed like the queue had halved (which was admittedly, still pretty lengthy). The Race Pack comprised of the event tee, race bib and notably, Compressport Pro Racing Socks, amongst other freebies. There were T shirt printing services, a PAssion Card and a Compressport booth, amongst a few others.

The Race Precinct
As I was participating in the competitive 10km category, I arrived at the start venue just before 7am. A quick and efficient baggage deposit, then to the restrooms I went. There were both portable restrooms and a permanent facility. Take a look at the image below 🙂

Thereafter, I headed into the race pen just after 7am. As the race pen had opened at 6.30am, it was pretty packed and slightly narrow (park connector route width).

The Race
Flag off was prompt at about 7.30am. A huge group of participants rushed off while I took my time – though admittedly I still encountered some obstruction as the route wasn’t very wide (2 car lanes?). The race route would take participants along the PCN before heading into Coney Island, then towards Lorong Halus Wetland and back along the PCN. Though hills weren’t part of the route (they aren’t easy to come across in Singapore after all), there were various undulating areas and of course, the portion of trail around Coney Island and towards Lorong Halus Wetland.

4 hydration stations were spread along the course of the 10km route, serving both chilled Lucozade and plain water. Distance markers were also present at every 1km, though their accuracy was questionable. Though I didn’t strictly run the tangents, I found that there was an ever-increasing dissociation between the beeps of my Garmin FR15 (at every km) and the distance markers (which appeared increasingly later). Indeed, as many participants did note, the distance was in fact quite a bit lengthier than the 10km expected (most GPS-measured distances were about 10.5-10.6km). That’s one aspect that marks our identities as Singaporeans – anything too near or too far, we make noise – and hopefully it’ll bring improvements in future!

There were adequate volunteers and direction signs dispersed throughout the route to ensure that participants did not veer off course, of course. One interesting aspect I noted was that the location of the Finish was deceptive. From afar, a Lucozade banner around the 10km mark did appear to look like the Finish line, hence I began a (half-hearted) kick a little earlier than usual, only to realise there was still some distance to cover. It seems like I wasn’t alone however – I overheard other participants speaking of similar experiences.

Post-Race
Thereafter came the Finisher’s Tee and a Finisher’s Medal which would form part of the shape of the Singapore map. It’s a pretty intelligent marketing tactic to encourage participants to collect the entire set 😉

Last but not least, results were released the day after 😀

That’s all from me for now! I’m glad I decided to take up the offer in participating because despite being new, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Likewise, I hope my review didn’t disappoint. You’re welcomed to check out my personal blog here 🙂

Cover photo credit: The Performance Series.

I’m sure I told my husband early this year that we’ll slow down how many races we sign up for so we can train more and be better prepared as opposed to winging it which we often seem to do. With that in mind we reached the end of April and had already participated in five races. Then the Performance Series came along with its sweetener, five races, every two months across different landscapes of Singapore. What better way to explore parts of Singapore than signing up for races in not so convenient locations. You know each time you gotta get up in the morning and catch that cab to that not so convenient location and when the race is done you can explore the area further. Without a car it is unlikely we would go to these locations otherwise.

With a curious and adventurous spirit that was enough to have me sign up for the series, then with big pleading eyes talked hubby into it. Thinking it’d be a brilliant idea to have the whole family involved, I roped my friend Remek to join us with his family. We intended for the 3 of us to do the 10km category, whilst his wife, their daughter and our daughter to race in the 5km category. Unfortunately, it was only after we registered for the first race I realised that under 13 year olds were not permitted to race. Whilst I know both girls would have loved to collect their own finisher medals, I’m pretty sure sleeping in was more valuable. They’ll just have to enjoy our collections.

Come the morning of the race and it starts like every other morning on a racing day. The alarm goes off and as we sit up in bed first things first, the questions: “why are we doing this again”, “why are we waking up before sunrise on a weekend”, “who came up with this brilliant idea”. As non-morning people, we mechanically got through the preparation, met up with Remek at the taxi stand, who’s first question was also “tell me again why we’re doing this” and hopped onto the ECP, to exit onto the PIE and off at the TPE (gotta love the acronyms in Singapore for highway names).

Following the sea of orange tees from Punggol MRT we found our way to the race village near SAFRA. Since we arrived early we figured we could make it into Wave 1 until we stood on the bridge crossing the waterway and saw the crowds of participants at least one kilometre long. Yep, we’ll just settle for Wave 2.

Reaching the Start line even in Wave 2 took at least 5min. As we headed east on the narrow path along the waterway, I farewelled my running buddies who are much faster than I am. Having experienced some terrible runs in recent weeks, I chose to settle in at an easy pace and enjoy the scenery.

Established as a farming district in its earlier history, Punggol has come a long way since. The Asian economic crisis in 1997 stalled the initial housing development of the area shelving it till 2007 when the plan was revitalised and construction began in earnest. Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon were damned up to create a freshwater lake and another reservoir for Singapore. Coney Island also known as Pulau Serangoon was opened in 2015 as a natural bushland park spanning 2.4km from north to south. Running through Coney Island felt like running through the Aussie bush.

Exiting Coney Island, the running, turned into trudging, which then turned into walking. With the construction site to my left and gravel beneath my feet, I chose to enjoy the Lorong Halus Wetland to my right prior to crossing the bridge back to the Punggol Waterway.

Once I reached 7km, I started messaging with hubby at each kilometer checkpoint as a way to keep me motivated and focused on getting to the end. I stopped at the 8th kilometer drinking station for a final refresher and rest. Hubby has already finished sitting on a grassy knoll overlooking the finish line waiting for me. From here I ran and walked, swapping from one to the other as needed. I was grateful to finally see and cross the finish line at 10.9km.

Much as it was a difficult run for me, of course the heat and humidity didn’t help, I was happy the first race in the series finished and am now looking forward to the second one at Jurong Lake.

Cheers

Third to cross the finishing line! Yes, you heard that right. I was right behind a couple when I walked through the finishing line. This has got to be my best performance ever! So how can an amateur who started running less than a year ago do that? You can actually, provided you haven’t gone to the start point in the first place! So how did I end up there?

It was one of those days where I decided to try to park at a location near the race against my missus wishes. By the time we reached there around 7am, all the carparks at Safra and the nearby carpark were full. There were so many cars parked along the double yellow lines, it would have been a field day for the traffic police. We didn’t see the point in risking a fine so we had no choice but to park at one of the HDB blocks much further away. When I mean much, it was like an almost ridiculous 2km. By the time I have gotten to Safra Punggol, the first wave was already gone and the 2nd wave was lining up and ready to go.

Since the start point was across the waterway on the other side, the only way for me to reach there to there was to cross a bridge that was right in front of me. I happily followed this couple in front of me who was also making their way there. What we didn’t realised was that the finishing point was also right in front. By the time I knew what was happening, I heard the beeping sound generated when the racetime shoe tag went past the sensors on the floor. Oops. No wonder the volunteers stationed there gave us a strange look. The organisers quickly responded and promptly got the incoming runners for the 2nd wave to make a detour up the slope to cross the waterway bridge. Sorry about that guys!

Due to the massive number of runners, I couldn’t even see the start point from where I was. I started my running app early and realised that it took an entire 5 minutes for me to reach the actual start point.

Since I was starting from the rear, it was not an easy race to run. You need to constantly weave in and out of runners. Not to mention those who will suddenly stop in their tracks without notice. These sudden changes will throw your running momentum off track and will demand more of your body as it tries to adapt to the every changing scenario.

What’s interesting in this race is that the back of your race t-shirt can be customised to fill in a short sentence. I saw a few which are quite epic. You have one guy with the words “running after chick” while his female partner was donning one that says “running chick”. Other memorable ones included words like “WTH is the end point?” and “#runningmama”.  It is always things like these that make running events memorable.

To keep logistical solutions simple and cater to a wider range of participants with a varying distance of 2.5 km to 10km. I believe the organisers decided to hold the start and end point at Safra Punggol. This also means my wife will not go back to Coney Island again and the run for her will not be as scenic as her previous 5km. For me, it was time to go monkey/cow spotting.

Unfortunately or fortunately, I didn’t manage to spot any monkeys or the lonely cow. However, I did spot a primary school looking kid taking part in the 10km. Nice job kid! He was even faster than me! It was during this time when some male runners disappeared into the bushes for a while before returning. Most likely trying to keep Coney Island fertile.

Once we were back on the mainland, we spotted some old folks hiking in the area. I found that to be very strange so I checked the map and realised that there is a wetland park nearby. Definitely something to explore in the near future with the kids.

Before long, we were back on the waterway to the end point. During this time, I spotted some runners with very dry t-shirts. That’s when we started merging with the 5km/2.5km runners and traffic started to build up again.

By the time I reached the end point, my wife had already completed her race. Her ex-colleagues who had joined her earlier had already left. We bade farewell to the race village and it was time to walk another 2km back to the car before going back home to the kids.

1 May 2016 marked the start of the first race of The Performance Series. It was held at Punggol near Punggol SAFRA, a place that is rather easy to find as it is right in front of Sam Kee LRT station.

The flag off for 10km wave 1 started off at around 7.30am. Running alongside the waterway was rather nice all thanks to the beautiful scenery. And since it was still rather early in the morning, the sun wasn’t that hot. The running pathway was also rather wide and they had several volunteers stationed along the way to help guide the runners.

The run got a little boring when I turned towards Coney Island. There weren’t much to see except for trees and the trees weren’t providing us much coverage from the sun which was blazing hotter and hotter by the minute. The road was long and straight but the bridge towards Coney Island in the far distance kept me going. I’ve never been to Coney Island before and was really excited to explore the place.

We entered Coney Island through the west entrance. The moment I passed the gate, I could feel a drop in temperature as I was welcomed by rows trees that lined the pathway. The trees provided a shelter away from the blazing hot sun. The air also felt fresher and it was really wonderful to be able to run in such environment. Running along on the sand and gravel was a new experience for me too and I soon came to enjoy listening to the soft crunching rhythm of sand and gravel underneath my soles.

The run through Coney Island was enjoyable but rather short-lived as I exited the area and was greeted by a road bridge that led me back to Punggol. On that bridge, I experienced the merciless heat of the sun on me and I started missing the thick foliage of Coney Island very soon after.

The return journey was along a rather narrow path that was covered with gravel and occasionally a puddle of muddy water alongside the road. The road then led back to Punggol Waterway and eventually the finishing point.

Hydration Points & First aid

There were a number of hydration points along the way which was really helpful for the runners due to the hot sunny weather (P.S. And special thanks to the volunteers who worked hard to pass us drinks!). The energy drink provided – Lucozade, had a really nice taste. Just like orange juice! I was rather surprised by it as I have always been skeptical about the taste of orange flavoured drinks as they always tasted really fake.

There were several mobile first-aiders along the way and I could see that the organizers really cared for the safety of their runners.

Distance

The distance somehow felt longer than 10km!

And upon checking on my running app did I realise I have completed a distance of 11.4km, the longest distance I have ever accomplished.

Medal & Finishing tee

The queue after the finishing point was rather long as everyone got jammed trying to go up the stairs to the race village. The collection of medal and finishing itself was fast. But as I looked at the medal, I doubted myself a bit, wondering whether the colour of my medal was indeed gold. It doesn’t look that gold to me and since there weren’t any indication of the distance ran, I had to look at the medal of my fellow 10km runners to check whether I got the correct one. I did get the right one. It just doesn’t look gold enough.
The sizing of the finishing tee was good and mine fitted well.

All in all, the race was a rather good experience although the journey was longer than expected.

This post can also be found on mylittlepartoftheearth.blogspot.com