The Santa Run for Wishes is organised by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with its objective to grant wishes to children with life threatening medical conditions. It is held at the Sports Hub, OCBC Square on the 2 Dec. The run originated in Arizona, USA, and is now held in many countries around the world in the name of charity.

There are 3 categories to this year’s edition: 2.5 km fun run, 5 km fun run and 10 km competitive run. My friend Skye and me are taking part in the 10 km category.

Event Shirt

There are 2 designs: the santa for adults and elf for kids. The designs, which I believe are standard in the same race in other countries, are in line with the theme of the run. Though I feel that it could somewhat only be suitably worn during this run or when you go shopping and sight-seeing at Orchard during the Christmas period.

Race Day

We had originally planned to meet at Kallang Wave Mall at 6.45 am. But I overslept (first time for a race) and reached at 7.30 am. After some consideration, we decided to run the 5 km route instead, as the 10 km runners had already been flagged off at 7 am and would now be in their return leg. Also, we didn’t want to wait for the 5 km flag off at 9 am as we felt it was quite late and we had more than an hour before 9 am.

Wasting no time, we commenced our run after some warm up exercises.  I had been here for the past races so I was quite familiar with the usual race routes; whereas this is Skye’s first race. I shared with her some of my race experiences, as well as the joys of running in Gardens By The Bay East. In my opinion, it is more enticing to run here in the evenings to enjoy the beautifiul night scenery this area has to offer. We passed the first hydration point outside Passion Wave and turned back when we reached the 2.5 km mark. By now, the 10 km runners were heading back towards the Finish Point and we joined them for the rest of the distance.

We rested a while, before proceeding to the Start Point to witness the flag-off for the 5 km and 2.5 km run. There was really a much bigger crowd of participants here compared to the 10 km run, with many families and their young kids in tow.  I had initially wondered why there was a 2 hr time difference for the flag offs between the 10 km and 5 km runs, but now I believe the organizers arranged thus so that the timed 10 km runners have an unblock passage of way.

There was a host of activities at the OCBC Square: a bouncy castle, carousel and stalls selling nice ornaments.  We lingered a while before taking our breakfast at ‘My Kampong’ at level 2. It was around 10 am when we left. Skye commented she had a fruitful morning and that she is keen to participate in other races. I said, ‘why not’?

Comments

I think 9 am is a bit late for the 5 km and 2.5 km runs. I suggest the following categories and flag off times: (1) 10 km competitive run and 5 km fun run – 7 am (2) 2.5 km fun walk – 8.30 am.

The heavy downpour during Penang Bridge International Marathon 2018 (PBIM18) has certainly raised a storm of angry protest among its runners. Rightly or wrongly, even keyboard commentators also rained down (pun intended) criticism on its organizer.

What began as an almost-perfect flag-off of this international marathon has somehow exploded into a drama of various issues that has left runners disgruntled, PBIM18 organizer chided, run cancellation queried – and a pacer nearly struck by lightning!

So much has been posted on the social media; ranging from the frustration of 10-km participants, the wrath of terrible weather, the inaccessible mall, to the long queuing time for parking and medals, the Chips’More-size 10-km medals, the late-comers who demanded their medals and many more.

Consequently, accusations were thrown at PBIM18 organizers for their alleged incompetence and lack of contingency plans. The question was whether all the flak was thoroughly deserved or just a proverbial storm in PBIM18 teacup.

As a PBIM18 Full Marathon (FM) finisher, let me objectively offer my assessment. I will not touch on all the issues, but focus my review on 3 key areas:-

1. The decision to cancel 10-km run, but continue with FM and HM (Half Marathon)
2. The long waiting time for the medals
3. The manning of water stations

TO CANCEL OR NOT TO CANCEL, THAT’S THE QUESTION!

Post-PBIM18, some participants predictably vented their frustration and disappointment over the internet, chastising the wisdom of 10-km cancellation and citing the extent of training and expenses they had undertaken in preparation for the event.

Before coming to a conclusion, let me share my experience of the storm! After the flag-off of FM (1.30am), ominous clouds soon gathered in the sky.  The weather took a turn for the worse, when it began to rain around 4.30am. What took everybody by surprise was how fast the drizzle abruptly erupted into a squall – with flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.

Abetted by the strong sideways wind, the heavy downpour incessantly assailed the marathoners left, right and centre. Every raindrop felt like a sting on the skin and at times, the participants ran into headwind. There was no shelter from the ‘assault’, especially for runners out in the open on the bridge, where they were completely at the mercy of the elements.

Perhaps the thought of discontinuing did cross the mind of the marathoners. Frankly speaking, the option of stopping on the bridge amidst the thunderstorm was equally unattractive; hence my decision to press on!

Despite what others may say, my personal view is that the bold decision to cancel 10km run should be applauded, instead of hammered! The overriding factor should be the runner’s safety. It would be much worse if the 10km run had continued and a few runners were injured during the tempest. A few also argued that the rain has already subsided around 630pm (10km flag-off time), but who could guarantee that the storm would not return with a fury?

We certainly don’t need a repeat of runner’s accident! Perhaps we still recall the unfortunate demise of marathoner Evelyn Ang from Klang City International Marathon 2017 and the mishap of participants in Pahang Marathon 2018.

Some also asked why HM & FM runs were not called off during the downpour and comparisons were inevitably made to the recently-cancelled Putrajaya Night Marathon 2018 (also due to bad weather).

Well….. perhaps this is something that PBIM18 organizer should come out to explain! In all honesty, I was expecting the run to be stopped; hence I could only half-guess the reason for their decision.

A possible flow of thought was that most HM and FM runners should be either just approaching the bridge, or somewhere near the mid-span, when the thunderstorm struck.

The million-ringgit question was if PBIM18 organizer abandoned the entire marathon, could they somehow promptly mobilize many sweeper buses to fetch thousands of unsheltered runners stranded on the bridge? Unless they readily worked out a contingency plan (eg dozens of buses already on standby), this could trigger a logistic nightmare and may even expose the runners to the additional risk of more vehicles plying the bridge during the storm.

Remember that with hindsight, everything is always 20/20.

THE WAITING GAME

The long queue for the medal seems to be a perennial problem of PBIM plaguing this run for several years. With this matter still fresh during PBIM17, it was a surprise that this issue still reared its ugly head this time. Was there any valid justification for the waiting game?

Let’s examine what has happened!

It should be anticipated that upon the 10-km-run cancellation, its participants would make a beeline for their medals. Unlike the gradual arrival of finishers, this time there would be a sudden bottleneck of 11,000-plus queuing runners.

Given the task magnitude (unless somehow PBIM18 organizer can instantly have additional counters and helpers), it was understandable that there should be some waiting time for 10-km medals.

However what truly puzzled us was the feedback that some exhausted FM runners also had to wait at least 20-30 minutes in the rain for theirs. Perhaps more helpers or stations may be needed in future.

How about pre-packed goodies bags (medal, finisher tee, food etc)? And the collection lanes created based on T-shirt size (as conducted by other established marathons)? This would surely minimize the checking and shouting of T-shirt size and last-minute packing of goodies bags, which may cut down waiting time.

Perhaps PBIM organizer could learn from the experience of other run organizers – for example despite higher participation (38,000 runners), Dirigo Events (the organizer of Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon) seemed to handle the medal distribution rather well. No congestion or complaint of long waiting time, with the medal collection process rather smooth flowing!

MUSIC TO MY EAR

One plus point about PBIM18 was the numerous water stations along the run route! These stations were about 3-4km apart, with a few perhaps about 2km away from the next one.

A special mention must also be made about the volunteers and kids who were in charge of these water stations. Despite the tempest, they steadfastly remained at their assigned sites.

As a marathoner myself, nothing dampened the spirit of runners, more than the sight of abandoned water stations. Not only did these volunteers distribute the much-needed food and drink in the rain, they also loudly encouraged the tired runners to persevere.

Indeed their cheering voices sounded like music in the rain and helped to lighten the dire situation. Their enthusiasm has definitely won much admiration from everyone, especially the marathoners!

On behalf of all runners, my utmost appreciation to these unsung heroes again – “kudos for your dedication and a job well done”!

After all is said and done, so where does that leave us now?

In my opinion, PBIM18 organizer surely has to improve on certain aspects of their event, but not all censure from their critics was warranted.

In his PBIM18 message, YAB Chow Kon Yeow (Chief Minister of Penang) said that “I am confident that the new PBIM committee will continue PBIM’s reputable legacy and take the PBIM to greater heights”; hence the onus must fall on PBIM committee to do the right thing to scale that lofty altitude!

In view of the mounting criticism from runners and public, it will be wise if PBIM18 organizer positively takes the feedback from public on various issues, critically analyze their processes, build on their strength and look for areas for improvement. If necessary, try to benchmark with other world-standard marathons, as well as consider whether to change the event date to avoid the raining season.

Perhaps they should make a public announcement on their findings and how they intend to improve for PBIM19. Only then will they be able to restore public confidence and receive continuous support from the running community. “Keeping silent and hoping people will forget” should not be their modus operandi!

As the motivational saying goes “Life is NOT about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to run in the rain!”

Ratings for Penang Bridge International Marathon 2018

“Seize the Day, Catch the Sunrise”

I’ve always wanted to participate in the Swissotel Vertical Marathon. I consider it as the marquee event amonsgst the local vertical races as it has been held in Singapore for more than 10 years and offers the highest building available for the public to challenge themselves.  Also, there are not many vertical races locally (only 4 such races this year). Hence, I decided I got to try it at least once for the experience and memory.

I am also using this race as a motivation to kick start my ‘staircase climbing’ regime, in preparation for next year’s mountains hikings.

Training

Training is simply climbing stairs – 2 steps at a time. I did not plan to run up as I believe my heart will not be able to take the stress. I wouldn’t want to risk a cardiac arrest. Hence I took it easy – walk up stairs whenever possible and choosing my residential HDB block and a nearby point-block for the purpose of training. Well, you can have a nice view at 25th storey too, depending on where your location is!

Race Pack Collection

REPC was at TripleFit, Millenia Walk. TripleFit is the official fitness partner and thus not surprisingly, there are vouchers which relate to the purchase of merchandise items at the outlet. There are also F&B vouchers for dinning at SKAI and Stamford Brasserie as well, but alas, they are not valid on the eve and on holidays, else I may consider using them for the coming festive season.

The event shirt from Under Armour appears too large, though I managed to exchange it with someone to a smaller size. But even after the exchange, I still find it quite ‘flappy’. In the end, I decided to wear my own shirt for the race.

Race Day

I had hoped it rains on Saturday so that the possibility of raining on race day Sunday is lesser. But it was not to be. It started to rain at 6 am in the morning and I received an sms message notifying that the flag off times have been delayed due to the wet weather and lightning risk. Logging to the event facebook, there were a torrent of queries from runners seeking clarifications, such as the revised flag off times. But the organizer was not able to advise.

I took some more sleep, assuming the race will indeed be delayed. I woke up again just before 7 am and found that the race had commenced and that the flag off times were per normal! I hurriedly took my usual race day breakfast and took the train to City Hall. I reached at 8.20 am. By now, the rain had stopped.

I was taking part in the Mens’ Masters category, which was scheduled to flag off at 8.25 am. I did some warm-up exercises and thereafter joined the runners queuing in the start pen. Before long, I was flagged off with 5 other runners.

I slowly jogged to the start of the staircase and commenced my climb 2 steps at a time. It was really an enclosed space, so I didn’t expect to find any window to view nice scenery to describe here. It was a rather monotonous climb. However, I did not feel stuffy, though I had read some previous participants commenting on this. Perhaps the organizer had installed portable blowers to increase air circulation? There were volunteers stationed at every 4 or 5 levels, encouraging the runners to keep going. Soon enough I reached Level 69, where I was directed to the Finishing Point at the Skysuites. I was given my finisher medal and ice mountain bottled water for hydration.

I took some rest and pictures of the external scenery. It was nice, but I know it can’t be compared to what I will see at Level 73, Helipad. I had target to complete the race within 20 mins and I managed to do so in 14 mins 33 sec (provisional result). However, I didn’t feel really happy as I had wanted to finish at the ‘top of Singapore’, not in an air conditioned room.

After some time, I took the lift down to Level 4, and then to the race site at ground floor. I took a can of chilled 100 plus for further hydration. The next prize ceremony was scheduled at 1120 am, but I didn’t plan to stay. As I was about to leave, I heard the organizer announced the upcoming runners will be able to complete their race at the top floor. Well, lucky fellas!

Comments

1) The race fees are not cheap. But runners are willing to pay primarily for the ‘finish at the top’. So frankly, I am very disappointed not able to do so, even though the rain had stopped and there wasn’t any lightning. If we are limited to just 5 mins at the top for photo takings, I believe we should be able to take care of ourselves and stay accident-free within this 5 mins? I trust the runners in my category or before me would agree with me.

2) I think if the organizer announces there will be a delay to flag off times, they should stick to the announcement and let the runners know the revised flag off times. Runners will not mind a 30 mins delay in order to facilitate a safer race and a better finish.

3) Apart from the ice mountain and 100 plus drinks, there is nothing else for energy replenishment. Even though it is just a short vertical race and not the usual road races, I guess some fruits or even biscuits would be welcoming.

4) I wonder why participants have to pay for bag deposits?

5) I feel the booths for Hydro Flask and Raffles Medical were located too far from the lift point at Level 4. Most of us will turn right from the lift to proceed to take the escalator down. Therefore, I am afraid not many would have noticed these 2 booths on the far left.

I may have completed the race, officially. But somehow I feel the race is still ‘uncompleted’. It is akin to the feeling of climbing kinabalu without reaching the top.

In conclusion, if you ask me whether I will repeat this race next year or in the near future, after thinking through today’s events, my answer is – probably not.

It’s sometimes just nice when you found out about about a race, registration was closed just the day before ? Luckily, registration reopened ? When Eleanor and I went directly to Woodlands Community Club to register,the run was just the next day ? Though even when registration wasn’t close yet, there’s no online registration available as I know of ? Not much information is available online as well other than the poster below, didn’t know if there would be any baggage deposit or what’s the route but I expect it to be well organised as it involves the community club and it would be fun as there’s stage performance, a carnival and National Step Challenge Roadshow that may draw a huge crowd.

It’s a run I wanted to run because the start point was at Republic Polytechnic. A memorable place which I used to dread to go in the past. I took my diploma there and I almost couldn’t graduate. During my first-year school term break, I took up a part-time job at KBox as a receptionist to pass time and loved the job damn much till I converted full time. Many times after work my ex-colleagues and I would stay back to sing and drink. Sibeh enjoying till can’t resist working there! ? Work starts at 6pm and ends at 2am. By the time I’m home, I only have a few hours of sleep before school at 8am. Many times I was absent from school that’s why it took me 5 awful long years than the normal 3 years to get my diploma. I don’t know how is it now, but attendance during my time plays a great deal to grades. My GPA almost got me a “Thank you for your participation” towards the end of the 5 years. Luckily, I graduated with a GPA of 2.02 ? This is already my 2nd “Luckily” I’ve used, I’m lucky. Blessed!

The run was organised by Republic Polytechnic, collaborating with People’s Association and Woodlands Community Club. Registration fee was only $6 which cost even less than a cup of Starbucks, upon paying for the registration fee, we collected the event tee-shirt(blue/green/orange colour to choose from) and a matching colour running headband with the tee-shirt colour you chose with a ticket which shows the running route, according to it, it’s just a 4.5km route and not 5km.

No matter what, it’s cheap cheap, I like ? It’s a fun run, and I find that usually fun run distance would be shorter than the actual distance stated.

On event day 17 November 2018, Eleanor and I reached Republic Polytechnic just a while before 4.30pm. As the event bib stated the event time is from 4.30pm to 8pm, we expected flag off for the run will be at 4.30pm but it’s at 5pm. No where states the flag off time as well ? We went to the toilet to pass time and saw counters to collect the step tracker with no queue! So shiok lah, I remembered last year I queued about an hour for it ? It’s a new step tracker with heart rate monitor, returned participants and new participants(Singaporean and PR) of the National Step Challenge can collect the new step tracker for free ?

It’s a colourful event in a sea of green, blue and orange. Quite a big turnout, with many families participating together and that’s quite sweet. While waiting for flag off, instructors from Active SG which I feel did a rather awkward warm up ? It’s really awkward and I guess many participants don’t know what are they “stretching” or doing as well ? At 5pm, we were flag off by the Grassroots Advisor of Woodlands GROs. Weather was awesome, not sunny like I thought it would be.

It’s a new route to me as I don’t usually run in this area. It was well organised and we ran on the tarmac roads, one lane of the road was cordoned off for the run. There were volunteers and traffic police around directing traffic and we were pretty safe as the entire(other than exits and bus stops) 4.6km showed on my Garmin we’re protected by water/sand barriers. Though there’s many lorries and air was bad at as it’s at the construction site.

It’s a big loop back to the end point and there’s one hydration point at about 2.6km into the run which I didn’t stop for water. At a last turn, I heard the volunteer said I was the second female runner and I chased though its a fun run with no prize ? Finally I overtook her at the last hundred metre of the run just feeling a sense of accomplishment that treasure knife haven’t old ?

After the run we collected the finished race pack inclusive of medal(though quality not very good but at least there’s medal and it’s just $6 we get so many other goodies as well?), bottle of water and 100 plus, and collected muffin, yogurt and a sandwich(which I ate on the spot). We left soon though there’s stage performance and carnival as Eleanor needs to go One North Run REPC and me to Santa Run REPC.

I would want to participate in the run again next year if there is! I think it’s the cheapest running event ever(other than free runs) and all the things I’ve gotten altogether seems worth more than $6 already ?