A group of SGRunners after the race.

Results are out! Click here…

Click here for photos by fennel
Click here for photos by hedgehog

It was the one and only Duathlon race in Singapore! Running 10 km, followed by Cycling 40 km and lastly, running another 5 km. I am not sure of when was the first duathlon in Singapore. I participated the New Balance Duathlon 2005, which was held at Marina Bay. Last year, 2006, was held at East Coast Park. This year, was held in the City, Raffles Place area.

Registration

Registration for this race was made on-line. Simple and easy. As for the price compared to last year, it increased slightly by 5 to 10 dollars. The price of races in Singapore are likely to increase even more in future. So be prepared to fork out huge amount of money just to participate in future races.

Goodie Bag

Non! That was it! Only an event t-shirt, a medal and a certificate which they are going to mail later. Considering the registration fee, it will be nice to have a bag of great goodies.

Location

More and more races are heading towards the city area. I assumed that the fees are getting higher due to the location. It cost money when roads are closed and public areas are used. That will include the cost of the Cisco Police to control the traffic along the race route.

The location was surrounded with quite a number of construction site. The ending point was a new road which are going to be linked to the new Integrated Resorts which are still under construction. Got a nice view of the new grandstand that was built along the Singapore River near the Esplanade. A good place to a catch sun rise.

Only few booths were set up. Those booths were meant for the organizers as well as sponsors. Not much goodies to look forward. I thought it should be good to invite various major sports brands to come over and promote their goodies.

The transition area was an open field. Didn’t remember if there were any trees. The weather was merciless to the participants. No shade. It was extremely hot and humid day.

The starting point of the race was quite a distant away from the transition area. And the speaker wasn’t fixed at the proper location. Therefore, some participants couldn’t hear the calling of participants for the race to start.

Running Route

Click here to look at the running route. The actual route was different from the one they gave in the website. The route started off with running along the Fullerton Rd and Esplanade Drive. Followed by turning towards the Esplanade running under the Esplanade Drive bridge towards the Empress Place, where we had to run along the river beside the Parliament House towards Clark Quay. At Clark Quay, we had to cross over the bridge towards Riverside Point, than we had to run back along the Boat Quay and across the Cavenagh Bridge and back to same route towards the starting point. It’s about 5 km. So had to do 2 laps for 10 km.

In the map given, we had to cross the Cavenagh Bridge and run along the Boat Quay towards the Riverside Point and u-turn and run the same route back.

There were two more events that was held along the route. One was at Clark Quay, and another was Boat Quay. Both were water sports event. The marshalers did well to prevent the crowd to block the running route.

The route was quite narrow in certain place. Had to wait for wider route to overtake front runners.

It was soo hot that the road along Fullerton Road and Esplanade Drive was steaming with heat. I could feel the heat through my shoe. I could feel the heat radiating from all the runners in tunnel which we had to go through from Esplanade towards Empress Place.

Cycling Route

Click here for the cycling route. I am not sure about the cycling route as I was doing the relay. But I heard that there were some bottle neck at certain points. The route suddenly become narrower. Maybe due to some safety reasons. I am not sure about that.

Water Points

The distance between each water points was acceptable. But due to the heat, it felt like far away. Mineral water and H20 was given. But from the run, I only tasted H20 only once. The volunteers did well to give water to the participants. But due to narrow route, some missed the water. It should be good to spread out the water points by few meters. These are for those runners who missed the initial water point.

The most disappointment part of the race was no water point at the ending point for those who were doing relay. The weather was super extremely hot! Cloudless! The water point at the finishing point were meant for those who finished the race.

I went to the information counter to ask for drinks. They showed me to the finishing point. So I had to find my way there. Worst, there was no way to go there. So I had to climb over the barricade just to get over to the water point. But I was shoved away by the organizer and said that the water are only for finisher!

I was feeling extremely dehydrated. If only there were shops near by, I do not have to go around to search for drinks. I was quite disappointed, and went to one of the water point table and had to beg for water. At first, he insist of not allowing me to take the drink. But I told him that I really need water. The volunteer reluctantly gave me a big bottle of water.

The organizer should set up a water point at the transition area, to allow participants who finished their relay event or for those participants proceeding to their next discipline.

At the end of the race, I could see alot of left over mineral waters and H20. And to my disappointment, the volunteers were playing with water. Throwing the water at each other. Speechless.

They organizer should be generous to give away waters to the participants. Especially to those who really need it. Hydration is very important. It is the participants need to be hydrated during races, especially races in Singapore.

Results

During the race, I didn’t see anyone in our category ahead of us. So we thought we have a chance to get top 3. So we waited for results. My team mates went back, while I waited until the prizes were given away. Didn’t got anything at all. Checked the initial results, we were in 5th position.

What happened was, the top 2 positions were not using the right number tag. That really causes all the confusion. They were wearing Men’s Relay and Mixed Relay number tag. Ours was Corporate Relay.

It’s very deceiving, and we thought we were top 3. Next time, all relays should wear the same number tag. No point of putting CR, MR, FR and XR if the results got mixed up.

Lastly, it will be good for the organizer to publish the top 5 results immediately after the first 5 participants finished, so that we do not have to wait for soo long. Maybe, next time, shouldn’t have waited at all. Quite a number of prize winner wasn’t there to collect the prizes.

Local Media

There are not much coverage after the race in the newspaper at the sports column. It will be great if local media can put an article on this weekend races in the newspaper. Maybe an interview coverage of the winner.

Conclusion

Due to non-generosity of water at the end point with that kind of extreme hot weather as well as the confusing number tags in the Corporate Relay, I give the race 2 stars out of 5. For all the races which I have participated, this race is in my down list. The organizing of this race can be improved further. Looking forward for a better organized event next year.

Lastly, the only group of people whom I want to thanks are the volunteers who brave and endure themselves under the sun! Especially to those first-aider along the route, especially along the bike route at Marina Bay area.

The race review are base on my personal experience and opinion. It’s not based on any groups or interest. Will still participate and support any future local races.