The Safari Zoo Run 2016 honestly took me by surprise. Especially since I’ve always only signed up for hardcore-sounding races like the Standard Chartered Marathon or the upcoming Sundown Marathon. It’s always “Let’s go for longer distance!” So I was expecting there to be lots of kids, crammed routes and lack of proper hydration points. But it was actually incredibly well organised.

The race pack collection was so efficient. Arriving right smack on a Sunday afternoon, I was first in line. The baggage deposit was also without squeezing and without confusion. I’ve got to give the logistics department a thumbs up.

Then, there were such wide routes, which earned major points from me. I could enjoy my run and enjoy the majestic animals posing quite unassumingly at their places. Even though we had to take repeat routes, it wasn’t monotonous at all.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing experience. Plus, did you know that this run was started in commemoration of Ah Meng? It was a worthwhile weekend morning of energy, fun and sunshine.

If there’s one thing consistent about running races this year, it’s the queue, long queue.

So when I went to collect the race pack for Marina Run, I tried to go earlier that first day of collection.  I still ended up queuing for more than 1 hour.

This was the third run for the year, but first half marathon of the year.  I ran my very first half marathon last year too in Marina Run 2015.  So I thought I would improve upon the timing this round.  The difference this year was I was also arranging to run with my friend, Francis and his nephew.  He was the one who encouraged to try my first 10 km race.  This time I asked him to try his first half marathon.  So I was anxious to make sure he also would get a good experience with his first half and shared whatever I do know although I was myself a green horn.  I just told him everything that I had learnt about running half marathons in the past year, eg making sure to energize with gel at intervals, placing petroleum jelly to prevent friction, benefits of compression wear, training runs.  And knowing he was keen to run his fastest, I also strongly suggested that we start off in wave 1.  I also introduced him to another friend who was more experienced in running that I met on FB (whom I also met up in person in the last race) who could give better advice too about pacing etc.

The day came.  Earlier in the afternoon, I was staring out at the heavy downpour just outside my windows.  Still, like the very first race in this year, I prepared to leave early and hope the rain would stop in time.  I took the public transport to Mountbatten MRT, hoping to catch the shuttle to the start point.   The rain did stop.  But, when I reached there, the queue for the shuttle was rather long.  My friend and his nephew was already at the start line but there were not that many people there yet.  I decided to take a walk to the venue, which was probably my first big mistake.  I ended up walking a fairly long distance and climbing over an obstacle.   Anyway still on the way there, I took pictures of some runners who were completing either their 5 km or 10 km races.

And then on reaching the venue, it was queuing again to deposit the bags.  By the time I finished, the wave 1 had already started off.  But luckily we had already agreed that regardless, whoever was there first, should start off if the other party was late, ie not to wait.

I could only start with wave 2, and we waited almost 15 minutes before we were off.  The run was breezy at certain stretches and there were more U-turns than other races I came across.  Hydration points were adequate but I felt they were not at regular intervals so it became a bit of a guessing game if you happened to skip one, when the next one would be.  Otherwise I found the running still good despite the narrow stretches at certain points and unlit, dark stretches which didn’t really bother me much though.

Towards the tail-end of the race, we were also treated to the fireworks in the sky due to the Chingay performance that were going on.   At the finish, we were handed an apple and a banana at the end of the race and also collected the medal and finisher T-shirt.  I took a bite out of the apple, feeling rather thirsty and then almost spit out when I saw that half of the apple was black and rotten.  Feeling rather disgusted I threw the apple away into the trash can and went straight to the bag deposit queue.   I found my friend and his nephew had done an excellent debut with their half marathons, beating their targeted timing, just slightly over 2 hours and so they had left for their dinner.  (I had been 18 seconds slower than my first race last year, way below my target ! but still, I was feeling rather good for my friend and his nephew’s achievement ).

After collecting my bag, I walked straight into an iron rod stuck in the middle of the ground in the darkness.  While I was hurting on my leg – a nasty 3 cm cut, a couple tried to remedy the situation by piercing their bib across the rod to act as a flag.  I took out my plastic bag for the T-shirt and white translucent piece of paper and draped them over the rod to make it more visible.  You might be able to discern the offending rod in the darkness on the right.  At the same time, I just called out to the folks who were collecting their bags to be careful.  I then made my way to the shuttle bus station after taking a short break to wash my wound.  Long story short, I managed to take the last shuttle after the organizer negotiated with the bus driver (there were folks who had queued up but couldn’t take the shuttle), and managed to catch the last MRT back to Bishan and then last MRT from Bishan to my home.  So still, a good end to the night.

In summary, areas for improvement lie in the queue management because of the high volume – the shuttle bus at the end of the day left quite a few disappointed, kudos to the person who negotiated for a returning last bus because the queue was already waiting there for almost an hour though the time was past announced deadline, perhaps more regular distanced hydration points, better lighting especially for congested queues, a little quality control perhaps on the fruits handed out or I was just unlucky to get a rotten apple.  Though the route had many loops, generally it was not confusing as volunteers were able to point out the U-turns clearly.  The medal is one of the better designed ones.  Still enjoyed the breezy route in the night so overall a good run still.

What’s next… another trail run in two weeks’ time.

Marina Run was held on the 20th February 2016 this year and as per previous editions, it was held in the evening. We love evening races because we do most of our trainings in the evening so we are more accustomed to running at that timing. And of course, you save up on the early morning taxi fare too 😛

Marina run marks the first HM that I will be running alone as I aim for a sub 2, hoping to check this off my New Year fitness resolution. I had put in my efforts in the past months, consistently clocking in my mileage even as school gets busy, so I was feeling rather hopeful and confident.

Race day

I utilised the shuttle bus service from Mountbatten MRT station to the race site and to be honest, I was really impressed with the shuttle bus frequency (every 2-3 minutes). The queue was really long when I joined in, but it took merely 15-20minutes before I managed to hop on a bus.

It was a short ride to the race site and upon reaching, I did my final preparations. Looking across the race site, one could spot two long rows of portaloos with no queues at all. The baggage deposit seemed to be well organized this time round. It was separated by race categories and the queues were moving fairly fast. It certainly seemed to be a much improved organization than the comments that we had heard from previous years.

I went ahead to queue up at the starting pen and soon after, I was flagged off in the first wave promptly at 7pm. I was feeling a little nervous yet excited, but I decided to take it easy right from the start and hoping to push a little harder in the second half. The weather was so cooling after a day of heavy raining; my body was feeling really good; and it seemed like all the stars were aligned for me to achieve my goal. In fact, up to the 10 km mark, I was pretty much still on track.

The route however, was not the most ideal. Within the first 10km, we were made to run along the pavements outside of condominiums where the pavement was narrow and other road users were taking their evening strolls/jog. What made things worse was that at one point, there was even a small open drain that we had to JUMP across. That was an accident begging to happen.

Things took a turn for the worse in the second half of the run as the sun began to set and the route got really dark. And I mean, really really dark. I could barely see what was ahead of me at many points along the route. This was especially so in the 14^th km, where the whole stretch of route was almost pitched dark. That stretch would make the perfect obstacle race if zombies were to suddenly appear and grab your feet. Thankfully, the runner in front of me flashed his phone’s torch light and I happily followed behind. Even so, vision was still terrible with the badly lit route and I had to take the extra effort to take care of my footing while slowing down for my own safety purposes. Time checked at 15km, 1hour 30minutes flat. Off target, but keeping my morale high as there was still a good 6km to go.

Fatigue began to set in slowly and I was finding it hard to step up a gear for the last stretch. Hopes of a sub 2 were pretty much gone when I hit the 19^th km mark, where the route required the runners to make a fairly high step up over a curb. That seemingly harmless curb killed my calves as cramps strike me out of nowhere. For the next few hundred metres, I was just hopping and dragging myself forward, at the same time shaking the cramps off.

Alas, the finishing point was in sight and I managed to finish in 2hours 7minutes. That was 7minutes off my target, but I was still contented nevertheless. Moving into the finisher’s tent, the volunteers handed me my medal and finisher tee and I absolutely loved the designs! It’s probably one of my favourite thus far. I was also handed an apple and a banana and that was a welcomed sight as I was dead hungry from the run. What a pity that there weren’t any bottled drinks for us thirsty half marathon zombies.

Well, at least I ended at the perfect timing to view the beautiful fireworks while enjoying my fruits.

Overall, as a first year participant in the marina run series, judging by this race alone, I would say that it wasn’t too bad but there are much rooms for improvement. Well, there may be several impressive parts that I liked, such as the shuttle bus services, the portaloos, the finisher entitlements etc, but there are still key areas that I feel were lacking in. My biggest qualm on race day would be that the route was badly planned with dangerous obstacles and bad lighting.

Nevertheless, I still enjoyed my race and I’m already looking forward to the next half marathon in April. Read more about Marina run 2016 on our blog and follow us @runningmypace on instagram