Sundown Marathon 2010 (29 May)

Running tag and D-tag for timing.

The medal is thinner as compared to previous years.
Men's Open 21.1km ranking - 254/3301 (9 Jun 2010)

Last Saturday took part in the half-marathon night race at the adidas Sundown Marathon 2010. Finally, I achieved a personal best timing of 2:06:14, the 5th attempt in 7 years.

Before running this race, my best timing was in Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2004, a time of 2:09:09. In SCSM 2006 half, ran 2:13:44. In 2008 SCSM half, a time of 2:13:14. In 2009 SAFRA Army Half Marathon (a tougher race running up the expressway) finished in 2:18:29. After 4 attempts, I was destined to run 2hrs 14 mins for a half marathon... So I tried to take advantage of this race, with a starting time at 9pm (though the air was hot & humid), but at least there isn't any heat from the sun.

With 3 of my running friends, Martin, 40 yrs old (best time this year in 1 hr 36 mins, was placed 19), Chin, 53 yrs old (finished in 1:58). Roland, 58 yrs old (finished in 2:02), he encouraged me when we met at 16km mark, where I was leading him.. shortly he overtook me, this made me determined to give a final push, maintaining my pace towards the finish (at average 6 mins pace). My inspiration came from my friends, despite being older in age, they are superb runners always running with deep passion.

A great race for everyone, we had our photos taken by an appointed photographer after the race, followed by a deserved night snack of "Indian prata", it was almost 2am. Hopefully in the next half-marathon, I have the chance to improve my timing again, it is not going to be easy but not totally impossible.

Race Review:

This is my 3rd Sundown marathon, in 2008 I ran the full marathon, at that time the total participants was probably less than 5k, a niche race in my opinion, the full marathon sign up was just around 4.5k. From my records, 3,599 men and 861 women completed the full. For 84km race, just a few hundred runners. The race was manageable back then, but recently it seems the organizer are getting their hands tied.

Has making more Money the main factor? More than 19k runners this year, an increase of 8k plus as compared to 2009. How was the logistic, transportation and manpower being planned? In the area of bag deposit, entertainment and wider running route, it was good planning. As usual credits to all the volunteers, they are the biggest plus point in this race. With limited resources and manpower, the volunteers did a wonderful job.

As I travelled to the location by car, it was very smooth along the way. But considering the majority of runners depended on the race day feeder buses (learnt that there was about 10 buses catered for the event), it was a huge disappointment, together with complaints from lack of drinks at each water point. From all the posts on Facebook Sundown Marathon, it sounds like a nightmare for most people.

The organizer will have to look into the complaints and improve... else runners won't bother to sign up next year, the race fees are not cheap (increasing every year) in the first place. I had experienced bad races in Mizuno Wave Runs (first 2 years) and understand the frustration even after the race, hopefully runners can forget about this and look forward to their next race. Good luck & enjoy your runs :)

Earlier post in Feb:
Medal Collections till 2009