I ran my one and only SCMS 10km race in 2014.  After a long week away in Boracay to celebrate a friend’s 40th I returned to Singapore with only a few days spare before the race.  Needless to say, after a seriously good trip with far too much partying, I was ill-prepared for the race.  Whilst I stumbled my way through it to finish perhaps what stood out the most is how enormous this annual international event was and perhaps a little too big for someone like me who doesn’t particularly like large crowds at the best of time.

To garner something like 50,000 participants is an enormous feat for such a small city-state like Singapore.  Yet, it shows it’s popularity with athletes gathering from around the world for this one day.  Perhaps one of the wisest moves by the organizers was to split the three major categories into separate routes, starting at different points to funnel in together at the Padang as the finish line.

This year, they even moved the kids dash to another day and completely different venue.  Given the difficulties many participants had in previous years with getting their kids to the start line and then making it to the finish line in time to collect them, this was a particularly good move.

Whilst this year I did not participate, I was never too far away from the SCMS app, remotely checking in on my Team Costa friends who were registered.  It was just as exciting tracking their progress remotely in the comfort of my home with coffee or two in hand.  Our Team Costa FB group was constantly alerting with progress and checkpoints crossed.

We had 5 members representing Team Costa and each category was covered. New personal bests were achieved, marathons completed and the blazing sun conquered.

Here’s a quick recap on each participant:

Ian

Although no stranger to racing in the UK, this is the first marathon he has ever completed.  Hindered by a knee injury that occurred at 30km, perhaps his quote “that was awful, never again!!” may ring true but then again somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, he may feel the desire to conquer it one day.  Lessons are always learnt from our worst experiences.  Quite often we are curious enough to see if we can overcome our challenges.

Certainly there was no shortage of training to prepare but unfortunately, marathon training takes months to accomplish and busy schedules and the never-ending haze had a lot to answer for.

As his body is still healing and physio will indeed be a necessity for the knee, I’m certain we haven’t seen the last of Ian on the racing circuit.

Avni

Ah what better way to knock off an item from the bucket list whilst celebrating her 40th year.  Well that’s what Avni did.  If you were to ask her about it, she’ll freely admit that it was the craziest thing she’s done so far.  Unprepared and untrained she forged through the 42.2km and the blazing sun.

Joined by her hubby and kids just in time to down a good dose of coconut juice, I understand it’s the cleanest form of electrolyte intake, for a much needed energy spike.

One of Avni’s observations during the race was starting out too hard and using up the reserves too quickly.  It is probably one of the most difficult aspects of racing different categories. Figuring out the pace needed and when to push to either race for time or race for distance.  Underestimating either could mean not enough reserves for long distance or not enough speed to make good time in a short/mid distance race.  Will Avni be back?

David

No better way to celebrate a birthday than racing a half-marathon.  Right??  Well maybe David could have found something more entertaining to do than racing but it came with a bonus.  Knocking off 3min from last year’s SCMS half-marathon.  Rightly so, given his consistent training in preparation for this race.

Coming in the 11th percentile in the overall category is no small feat but reaching that position by overtaking just under 500 participants in the last 5km indicates how much he still had left in him, regardless off the relentless sun beating down on him across the Western Coast Hwy.  I wonder, David, will we see you at the Sundown Marathon tackling the half-marathon as a night race perhaps?

Remek

Reasonably new to running, he’s progressed to half-marathon fairly quickly undertaking the first one at the Sundown Marathon.  Training predominantly at night, Remek admits he was not prepared for the blazing sun on the freeway. Being witness to numerous participants suffering from heatstroke, Remek wisely chose to swallow his pride and slow his pace until he exited the freeway and entered the shady areas of the city.

In his own words regarding the finisher medal “I may not have won it, but I sure earned it”.

Although he may have questioned himself at the end wondering why he’s doing this to himself, I’ve no doubt he’ll do it again and most likely will see him at Sundown Marathon.

Steve

For some time there was a tongue-in-cheek joke about the 4min man.  We kind of knew this bloke, known as Steve, or at least about his running feats.  When most of us were satisfied to run at an average pace of 5 or 6, there’s this guy who runs at 4.  Eventually we got to know him better and swiftly inducted him into Team Costa’s group.

Focusing on improving his physical conditioning with the help of personal trainers, Steve barreled through the 4min pace to finish the 10km category in 37:33min at a pace of 3:45, placing him 4th in his age category and 14th overall out of 14,228 participants.

I guess we’ll need to find a new more apt nickname for him.  A terrific way to finish the year with a new goal post set for 2016. We’ll be watching you Steve.

I may not have participated or been present but following these guys on the SCMS app was just as good as being there.  We finished off the afternoon, with a BBQ gathering to celebrate David’s birthday (his lovely wife as the chef), have a race debrief and cheer with beer.

When I first looked at the $70 price tag for this race, I just went whoaaaa, why so much?  Sometimes it pays to look a little deeper and read the fine print.

Returning for the second year in a row, Santa Run for Wishes is a fundraising race for the Make a Wish Foundation which grants wishes to life-threatening medically ill children.  Started in Singapore in 2003, it has thus far granted 1000+ wishes making a lot of children smile.  Even more wonderful is that all proceeds will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Singapore Government as part of the Care and Share Movement.

This year, Make a Wish Foundation in collaboration with Universal Studios have brought a little extra pizzazz to the racing event.  Following the race, all registered participants were provided with exclusive access to Universal for an evening of fast rides and even faster waiting lines.

Well that was enough to seal-the-deal for my family.  Have a race on Sentosa followed by thrilling rides and inadvertently give to a charity through our participation.  On top of that we were able to donate a number of books during the race pack pick-up.

Now onto race day. My understanding is that last year’s event was held around the Marina Bay area, so this year perhaps due to the collaboration with Universal, the race was held on Sentosa.

With 2km and 5km categories, the event commenced at Angsana Beach heading due west.  With both categories flagging-off at the same time, it was quite a tight squeeze funnelling through the start line and the first kilometre.  As we reached the turning point at the west end of the island the race felt more like an obstacle course rather than a race course.  Unfortunately with both categories racing at the same time there was a lot of weaving through the crowds on narrow lanes.  We basically gave up on racing and just chose to chill out and wait until the 2km category finished.

Somehow though the 2km category didn’t finish until it reached around 3.4km which made me wonder how long was the 5km category.  At this point we were quite dehydrated and still a fair way from the organised water point.  John veered off the route to stop at 7-11 to buy drinks whilst Trini and I kept going.  The water station was at 4.4km at the east end of the island’s turning point.

By this stage Trini was trudging and she kept asking how much longer.  Honestly, once we crossed 5km on my Suunto watch, I had no idea what to tell her since I knew we were still a fair way from the finish line.  So we started playing a game using landmarks to run between followed by walking and repeat.  The running distances were short but it kept her motivated to push through the last part of the route.  By the time we reached the finish line we had covered 6.3km.  Slightly longer than had expected.

However, the ice cream, electrolyte drink, finisher medal and the upcoming Universal visit made for very quick fatigue recovery.  There was a little disappointment for my girl when the finisher medal’s paint peeled off as it dried itself onto the ribbon.  Promising to fix it with some white paint at home was enough to turn her frown up-side-down.  I suspect the medals were packed before they were fully dried as each one of our medals had the white paint peel off when we detached the ribbon from where it dried.  Not sure if this was a common problem or just bad luck on our part.

Along with our friends, we made our way to Universal Studio’s and thoroughly enjoyed having the park mostly to ourselves.  We were joined by many severely disabled children who had this rare opportunity to visit a theme park which otherwise they would never have that chance.

All the thrill rides were open and my 7 yo had her first go on the Cylon Rollercoaster, flipping upside and zooming at high speed.

Needless to say by the time we wrapped up the day and got home it was midnight and Sunday was a long and very lazy day.

Perhaps some notes of observation regarding the race is to flag-off the categories at different times, provide water stations at half way points, use breathable material for the tees and ensure the finisher medals have sufficient time to dry if they’re painted before packing.

It’s understandable that the foundation may have teething problems since it’s only its second year and I’m sure as they keep organising this event they will get better at it.  Personally, I will happily continue supporting it.  Regardless of some of the minor issues, it is for such a worthy event that all this can be overlooked.

Overall, we had a good time as we always do.  Wishing everyone a terrific festive season.

Cheers.