Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2011 Race Review

in my 9 years of running, this is the toughest half marathon (with the slowest timing), partly due to the hilly terrain

First of all, this race is an unfortunate one. We lost a young man, Malcom Sng, 22 years old collasped upon crossing the finishing line during the half marathon. He passed away in the hospital an hour later.

He is a respected runner, from the news, this is his second half marathon. He had signed up for the army half marathon in Sept. When he crossed the finishing time, the clock was 1 hr 53 mins. For a new runner it is not easy to run at this speed.

Race Review

The race starts at 6:30am on Sentosa island. I moved towards the front with my running mate Roland, about 100m from the start line. Before the start, i'm not as excited as it used to be (mainly because i had achieved my target of running a half marathon under 2 hrs, back in Sept this year). Having recovered from a cough this week, plus an ongoing knee problem together with the lack of training, i don't intend to push too hard during the run. The longest training run was just 2.8km x 4, around 11.2km (i had to walk in the last 2km because of slight pain in the right knee)

Before the run, was informed of the 8 uphills in Sentosa island itself, and i'm ready for it, after 3-4km into the race i'm starting to feel slight strain. This course is challenging indeed. The worst part was towards the 8-9km mark, we were running into an underground bus interchange, it was hard to breath inside, lack of oxygen, that stretch was around 1.5km. With the bus engines running.. it was hard, there was a driver standing beside the road, smoking! When i ran pass him, i had to inhale his 2nd hand smoke...! I just wanted to get out of this tunnel.

For the 10km within Sentosa, i took around 1 hr. Then my speed started to drop. For the remaining 11km to the finish, i had to stop, stretch & walk (due to my knee). Finally crossing the finish line in 2hrs 25 mins. The slowest time for a half marathon, 12% for the overall finishers (which i was quite amazed), i was really slow in this run.

In the reports, it mentioned there are 19,700 runners in the half marathon. The official results are out, 13,862 finished the half. That's only 70%.

We do not have 5km and kids dash numbers.

From official site: marathonsingapore.com

Finishers

Full Marathon	15,343
Half Marathon	13,862
10km	12,047
10km Wheelchair	6
Ekiden	722

20,000 signed up for full, and 19,700 for half.

the 3 half marathon medals, Sundown Marathon (May), SAFRA Army Half (Sept) and the Standard Chartered Half (Dec)