Since Coney Island has opened to the public in late 2015, it has been included in a number of running events.
Much like the Marina Bay / Nicoll Highway / Stadium area for downtown-based events, it has been quite common to route a course through Coney Island when the event venue is based in the Punggol / Riverine Loop.
So by now, when there’s an event annouced to be held at the North East area, and it mentions “Coney Island” somewhere, you can imagine either an “again?” collective groan or a blase “really?” from regular running event junkies.
The organizers (I suspect) may have their hands tied by the NPB with the route planning, in that they are only allowed to run through this cycling path:
But if you are there on your own time, you may have already ventured off the main path. There are rough trails even a boardwalk North of this cycling path that goes through the forested area. They also lead to 5 different beach areas facing Johor Straits.
And if you are lucky, if the tide isn’t high, you can run the entire length of the beach.
In the video, as I first took the cycling path from West (Punggol End side) to East entrances, so my beach run is in the return direction – I entered via Beach Area D (or E) and exited at A.
Not sure if like at beach resorts, they’d have people cleaning up the beach before people starts coming in (the gates open 7am). The beach is surprisingly clean.
Its around 1.6km end to end. Not much but hey, you get your change of surface and scenery. I was on trail shoes. The sand is a little compact and doesn’t sink much so its not particularly challenging to run through.
