Singapore 2024, December 01

Got a good early sleep to be up at 3:30am with plenty of time to walk to the start. It took a bit longer than planned but I got to the entrance by 4:10am instead of my estimated 4:00pm, already sweating a lot. There was still a very slow, narrow security point that took nearly 10 minutes to get through because about fifty lines of people were merging into five from three different road entrances, so I only just got into Pen B before it closed.

The delay at least meant I only had to stand around on the spot for fifteen minutes or so before the race start. As our starting group got to move forward I wasn't too far from the front row, and once we took off it thinned out pretty soon.

Not having run in conditions like this I had set a rough target of about 4:00/km but was just behind that during the early kilometres. My race plan was also to get two drinks at every station and a gel at 7km and 14km, which all went perfectly. Even though I was always closer to 4:05/km I was regularly passing people and knew the bridge climb was still coming up at 10km.

I survived that bridge challenge really well and made more overtakes, then on the way down the other side the course split into two with the marathon runners going a different way. There was an extremely dark section that came next, heading back to the marina but without many cones, limited lightning, and no signs or course marshals. Then we reached this weird fork in the road at 14km with only one person just ahead of me.

I saw one orange cone straight ahead in the far distance, but also a whole line of cones to the right every ten metres or so, so I followed the guy who went that way. The cones continued along the middle of the path, which felt normal to be dividing traffic, but then incredibly we just reached a dead end of cones arranged in a "T" shape. The guy in front and a couple more behind were all really annoyed and confused once we realised we must have being going in the wrong direction for like two minutes.

I still have no idea after the race why there would possibly be all of these cones laid out in the wrong spot, while there was almost none on the actual course, and also how more people didn't go the wrong way. Having to loop back around to the start of the unexpected detour cost another two minutes and lost a heap of positions.

I was hoping everyone else had taken a shortcut instead perhaps, but soon found out I was over 15.8 kilometres on my watch when I hit the 15 kilometre marker. I lost attention and motivation in my race after this and really can't remember much of the rest of it. Later on I started looking for opportunities to take a shortcut to make up for lost time, but it was not possible anywhere with the way the course was arranged.

It was annoying afterwards to keep seeing so many volunteers at useless places on course where they already had a complete line of metal barriers in place, yet neither of those things were in place earlier where it was really needed.

What would have been an enjoyable race morning was pretty much ruined by that error. I didn't really enjoy the final stages of the race either, like crossing the bridge to the finish line. My overall position was something 48, 32, 57, 48, 45 at each split, and I would have been placed well under 30 before being sent the wrong way.

At the end everyone received a medal, bottle of water, refreshing wet towel, and a few other things I wasn't too interested in due to being annoyed still. There wasn't much activity at the recovery zone yet, it looked like they were still getting things setup so I just went straight to the exit.

The walk back to the hotel was shorter due to the finish being at a different location than the start. I got breakfast at the hotel before 7:00am but still there was quite a lot of people around, with the same stuff being served as yesterday. Back at the hotel room I didn't have a big plan for the day yet since I didn't know how tired I'd be after the race.

My legs didn't fell too bad since I'd run at a slower speed and intensity than usual, and had rehydrated well enough afterwards. Getting on a train on the Downtown Line I arrived at Botanic Gardens some time after 9:00am. Walking around the park I saw some good scenery but not heaps of unique plants or animals, although did see one big lizard on the footpath.

I paid for the entry to the Orchid Garden, which was a bit disappointing as most plants were just scattered around without too much special arrangement. Only a few special ones inside the cold room were more worthwhile.

Walking back to the train station I was feeling a bit tired now, with a couple of hours of extra walking added on to the morning race. I went a couple of stops back on the Downtown Line then switched over to the North East Line to Dhoby Ghaut, around where many shopping centres are.

The train station came out inside Plaza Singapura in particular so I looked around there, with a big variety of food and shops. Initially I was going to get Five Guys but it was like $12 each for chips, a basic toasted cheese sandwich, and a milkshake, which was crazy. After looking some more I found a CoCo Curry house instead, I got the vegetable curry again as they didn't have a tofu option here, and the prices were more reasonable. Afterwards I had a look in a variety of stores but didn't find anything, just some food from Bread Talk and Dunkin Donuts for later.

Getting back on the train it was just one more stop to Clarke Quay to head back to the hotel. Checking Google Maps I found there was actually another Cold Storage supermarket close by, so checked that out but was a bit of a smaller store and the range wasn't as good. They have a strange mixture of local products and imported stuff from Australian and elsewhere that is like 4-5 times more expensive as a comparable product. I just got some more drinks and lollies and finally made it back to the hotel.

On the Singapore Marathon website there was a stream of the race but it didn't have any half marathon coverage at all, since it started at the same time as the marathon. The commentary wasn't the best either and the race was dominated by some Africans I'd never heard of, but at least they didn't keep cutting away to commercials. The coverage confirmed what I had experienced, due to the race starting at 4:30am there was hardly any spectators along the whole course route.

Steps = 37,761 with 22km running