This was my first organized race in South-East Asia. I wasn't sure what to expect but here are some of my impressions.

- The registration process was fairly simple and affordable.
- My only gripe is that local race directors seem to close the registration a few weeks before the race so its impossible to do last minute races.
- The packet pick-up was a week before the race at a local mall. Fairly straight forward. A decent t-shirt (tank top would have been better) and some useless swag.
- There was greater deal of emphasis on flogging the title sponsor's shoes and other sponsor's gear. There was 'Newton' shoes everywhere. No issues for me, just an observation on how things work differently here than in North America.

- When I arrived for the race I was shocked to see how many people actually were racing. I did not expect to see so many runners in Singapore. There were about 4500 runners (approx. 1500 people doing the 18km and 2000 on the 30km)
- There was a healthy mix of Chinese, Malay, European, and Indian people. Most looked to be in good shape and all were wearing the latest and greatest gear. It was a retailer's wet dream.
- Waiting in the start corral people were not particularly friendly. Chit chat and polite nods hello were met with blank stares or avoidance of eye contact. In retrospect I think racing is not as common here and this was a big race for most people so I'll assume the stand-offishness was just pre-race nerves.

- One annoyance was the lack of corrals to group people by running speed. The path were were running on was only 4 meters wide and with all these runners it was too crowded. With loads of slow people lining up in the front I spent the first 9km dodging people. I actually ran an extra 500m partly because of this.

- The other reason I ran extra distance was because I had to run into the showers at each beach comfort station. It was too hot for me and a cool shower every 15min. helped immensely.


Pack ice into my tri-top packet.

The heat and not enough training the past few months


This race was OK but nothing special. The Singapore heat and humidity will be a difficult challenge to overcome.