The 2018 edition of the Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer took place this morning at Angsana Green @ East Coast Park, with about 8,000 runners turning up to show their support to the cause.

Click here to view the Singtel – SCS Race Against Cancer 2018 photos.

This year’s event had comprised of three categories – the 5km Fun Run, as well as the 10km and 15km Competitive Run events in order to cater to runners of differing preferences.

A key fundraising event for Singapore Cancer Society 

Organised by the Singapore Cancer Society and sponsored by Singtel, this running event is one of the key fundraising events on their calendar and aims to raise funds for cancer treatment subsidies, welfare assistance, cancer rehabilitation, hospice care, cancer screenings, research, public education as well as cancer support group initiatives.

Now celebrating its tenth anniversary edition in 2018, the Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer aims to continue to make a statement against cancer – to minimise cancer and maximise life and that nobody should be left to fight cancer alone.

Cancer survivors encouraged to take part

So the run had encouraged cancer survivors and their caretakers to participate in the event and run alongside the other participants.

Ellil Mathiyan, 59, a Manager in a recycling company, was one of these cancer survivors. He had been diagnosed with both rectal and testicular cancer in 2011 and is now in remission.

Explained Ellil, “It has been seven and a half years now since my cancer diagnosis. I have been through chemotherapy and radiation and I am now glad to say that I am cancer-free.”

He added, “Cancer has changed my perspective of life completely. Now I don’t take anything for granted. My brush with cancer made me realise that life is precious and short and I learnt how to enjoy my life and not to sweat over small things, because it is not worth it.”

Ellil, who is now a regular supporter of the Singapore Cancer Society and their activities, showed his support this morning by taking part in the 5km Fun Run.

He said, “I want to be there to support any activity that the Singapore Cancer Society organises, ranging from being a patient and a visitor, to a tutor for their youth programme. I spend a large portion of my time volunteering with them because what they do, means a lot to me.”

I took part in the 15km category 

Supporting and being a part of the Race Against Cancer every year also means a lot to me personally, since my mother had been diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2014 and today, she is still fighting the cancer. As well, my grandfather had passed away from lung cancer in November 2014 and I still miss him a lot today.

So I took part in the 15km Competitive Run category, as a 1 hour 45 minute pacer.

I had chosen to participate as a pacer in the event this year too, in order to give back to the running community. 

This was because pacers have helped me to achieve my personal best timings on a few occasions at other races, so I felt that it was now my turn to help other runners to achieve their personal bests.

And at the same time, by running in the Race Against Cancer, I would be supporting this meaningful cause and doing my part in making a statement against cancer too.

15km Run flagged off at 7.10am

The 15km event had flagged off at about 7.10am. I reached the race village at about 6.40am and mingled around with the other pacers for a while before heading into the starting pen.

I noted that there had been quite a few elite runners doing pacing duty too, including Jenny Huang and Jasmine Goh as well as Rachel See and her husband Poon Zi Li. It had been good to see these runners giving back to the local running community too.

Once in the starting pen, I saw a few of my running friends who were taking part in the event too and had wanted to support to this meaningful cause for varying personal reasons. One of them was Martin Tay, who is an avid runner as well as a survivor of prostate cancer. 

The 15km race was flagged off punctually by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Chan Chun Sing, who was also the guest-of-honour at the event.

An Easy Morning Run

As a 1 hour 45 minute pacer, I was tasked with running at a 7.00mins/km pace throughout. This is generally an easy pace for me to maintain, usually putting my heart rate in the Easy/Steady zones. So as I set out and begun my run, I had no problems keeping to the target pace.

And with the cool sea breeze in the morning, this also combined together to make it an enjoyable and rather cooling morning run for me.

Added Leah Chong, 42, who works in Admin at Abbott Laboratories, “The race and good and the weather was excellent – there was no sun and everything went very smoothly.”

Scenic and Familiar Route

Route-wise, I would say that this was a scenic route that was quite familiar to me. We ran from Angsana Green towards Big Splash and then u-turned. Then after that, we headed back to Angsana Green. This was about 10km. 

We then continued in the other direction, towards the Water Venture @ East Coast and back, in order to make up for the additional 5km.

I train at East Coast Park almost all of the time, so I knew exactly what to expect in terms of the terrain and route elevation as well as being aware of every porthole and crack on the ground, so this had meant that there were no nasty surprises in store for me along the way.

Other runners who do not frequent East Coast Park so regularly though, really loved the route too.

Said Philip Ee, 50, who works in Logistics, “The route was beautiful, by the sea, and with all the trees, it was really nice.”

And added Elena Grabmaeier, 25, an IT engineer, “The route was very nice and I loved it.”

Congestion at the beginning

At the beginning when I started running, I would say that was a little bit congested though. My pace group had started around the middle of the starting pen, so we had to fight with the crowd for the first couple hundred metres. 

But after that initial bit though, when the crowd had spaced out considerably, we were able to settle into our target pace. 

There were no more bottlenecks after that, and things were quite smooth along the way, despite there being quite a fair bit of construction sites at East Coast Park this morning. So the organisers definitely had their logistics down to pat.

Said Leah, “The race route was not too crowded, which was good.”

Hydration 

I spotted the first hydration station after roughly about two kilometres of running. Altogether I counted about seven hydration stations along the way. 

While I thought that the number was sufficient for a 15km run, it was unfortunate that not all of them were serving isotonic drinks, which was sponsored by Pokka Sports Water. About half of the stations had isotonic available but the rest were only serving plain water.

I also noticed that the isotonic drink and the water were placed inside the same white plastic cups, so it was not really clear which was water and which was the isotonic drink.

So I had to listen to what the volunteers were shouting, in order to figure out which table contained which drink. But I felt that this was quite distracting and not exactly conducive to my running, as a result.

But I liked the way the volunteers held out the drink cups at each of the aid stations so that runners could simply grab these and continue running without needing to stop and lose their momentum. 

For pacers who need to maintain a constant pace throughout the route, this had definitely been useful in helping me to keep my rhythm going.

Kilometre Markers

As I ran, I noticed the kilometre markings at every kilometre on the route. These were pretty accurately positioned, and mostly tallied with my watch. Those that had been slightly off, were only out by about 100 metres or less. 

So this meant that runners who may not own a GPS watch, would have been able to easily use these markings in order to gauge their pace.

I noted that the kilometre markers also had inspirational cancer-related messages on them to spur runners on too. These were quite motivational to read along the way and I thought that they were rather apt too, because they were closely tied to the theme of the race.

Motivation along the route

Along the way, as pacers, we also constantly motivated runners who looked as though they were struggling or slowing down, and encouraging them to keep on going and to not give up.

But there was a runner dressed in an orange singlet though, who was playfully trying to ‘irritate’ our pace group along the way. He had been running just in front of us for the most part, and occasionally dropped comments such as, ‘Psst. Don’t hold back – you can run a bit faster.’ 

We playfully brushed him aside, but I would say that he had been a good form of entertainment and laughter for us during our run. He was joking around with us, because he knew some of us.

There were volunteer cheerleaders along the way too, waving pompoms and egging on the runners to keep going, with motivational chants and cheers. Some cheerleaders held out their hands for runners to exchange high-fives as well.

I would say that these little additions to the running route had been quite stimulating and they brought a smile to my face, helping to keep the boredom of long-distance running at bay too.

The last 5km

The first 10km of the run had whizzed by quite fast for me. And before I knew it, we were back at Angsana Green. 

But at this point, while the 10km runners could just run through the finishing arch and complete their run, the 15km runners still had to go on for another 5km. I have to admit that this was a bit mentally demoralising.

Legs felt a little heavy 

As well, my legs were also beginning to feel a bit heavy at this point of the run, because of a gradual increase in my training mileage recently – in preparation for my Berlin Marathon in September. 

So for a fleeting moment, I had been rather tempted to just run through the finish arch and complete my run.

But as the pace had still been easy enough for me, I did not have too much trouble in fighting the fatigue and continuing with the run. This had made me thankful that I had chosen to be part of an easy pace group, rather than picking one of the faster ones.

As well, I had also reminded myself that running another 5km was nothing compared to the long battle that my mum has been fighting against brain cancer, and this too, had spurred me to continue running on, all the way to the end.

Sun was slowly coming out

The sun was slowly beginning to emerge when we ran the final 5km stretch and my heart rate was fluctuating between my high Easy zone and my low Steady zone. 

But the weather was still quite decent for a Singapore morning. As well, the trees had also helped to keep the heat from shining down on us in full force. 

Finishing the Run

I completed the run in 1 hour 44 minutes and 47 seconds, with my heart rate in the low end of the Steady zone. The course had been slightly short so we had slowed down slightly in the last couple hundred metres in order to compensate for this. 

Overall, I would say that it had been a pacing assignment done well and that my team mates and I had all been happy with how it had all panned out.

Finisher Entitlements 

As soon as we had completed the run, we were presented with our finisher medal, as well as a bottle of water, a banana, a can of isotonic drink and a bottle of Yakult as the event finisher entitlements.

I was feeling rather thirsty so I drank up both the water and the Yakult very quickly.

Breakfast was also provided for the pacers too. We were given a McDonald’s Chicken McMuffin each.

Post-Race Carnival

After the run, I took a few photos with my pace group as well as some photos with the whole team of pacers, before then heading over to the race carnival to take a look around.

The carnival was quite simple, consisting of plenty of photo booths for runners to take pictures at.

One of the nicer photo booths that I had seen though, was a life-sized family that was made entirely out of balloons. I had thought this was really interesting and quite unique.

I stayed back to take photos around the event site, but as the morning wore on, the sun came out in full force. By about 9.30am, the heat was already scorching and by 10am, it was intense. 

Thankfully I was already done with my run at that point in time. But it also did not help though, that the Angsana Green area does not really have much shade. So I felt myself suffocating from the heat, as I walked around the race site to explore.

As well, there had been some tents put out by the Singapore Cancer Society, as well as by the event sponsors such as Yakult, Pokka and Merck Sharp & Dohme.

I noted that some of the tents were giving away or selling merchandise to runners such as the Singapore Cancer Society’s teddy bears and knitted keychains, while others had sent sizeable contingents of employees to participate in the Singtel – Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer and had thus catered breakfast for their hungry employees after the run.

There was a balloon magician too, who was making cute balloon sculptures of various animals and other characters. I queued up and managed to get myself a really adorable looking Pikachu balloon sculpture.

I had remembered that last year’s event had featured some games targeted at teaching participants more about cancer. For example, mimicking the effects of oral cancer by having participants say a sentence out loud with marshmallows in their mouth. I had thought these were educational. 

Unfortunately these games did not feature at this year’s edition of the Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer, though.

Nevertheless, for many of the runners who had taken part, the Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer had still been a well-organised event for a great cause, and they would continue to support it.

Said Brian Grant, 32, an Engineer in a Pharmaceutical company, “The organisation and logistics was good, and the layout and event site was great. Everything was well done from start to finish and I will definitely do this again next year.”

And added Philip, “The organisation and logistics was great. There were quite a lot of people but the organiser managed the crowd well. Everything was super smooth.”

Event Raised More Than S$1.1 Million

The Singtel-Singapore Cancer Society Race Against Cancer being a charity run, had raised more than S$1.1 million by the end of the morning, with all of the proceeds going to supporting the Singapore Cancer Society’s initiatives.

Personally, I think that it is definitely heartening to know that so much money was being contributed to help cancer research, and it gives me hope that a cure for cancer can be found someday, so that future generations will not even know what cancer is, let alone suffering from cancer.

Top Fundraisers 

As well, besides rewarding the podium finishers with prizes on stage, the event also rewarded their top fundraisers, such as Chua Yun Da, 21, who had been the top charity fundraiser with a total of S$8,718 raised for the Singapore Cancer Society.

Yun Da’s motivation to raise funds had been in memory of his good friend, Harold, who had passed away from osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in his C7 spinal segment on the 13th of June at the age of 21.

Said Yun Da, a Liberal Arts Student at Yale-NUS, “I am trying to remember Harold. He always believed that there is a way that cancer can be cured and he always thought that he would recover. So when he passed away, I was quite shaken and I thought to myself, is this really the end? If I just accepted defeat, it would be futile.” 

He added, “So then, I had decided to do something about it and that spurred me on, to come to this run and participate in it, in order to do my part to remember my friend. I am still in shock over Harold’s passing and I am not sure if there can really be a cure for cancer, but as long as we try, then we can continue to hope for one.”

So Yun Da took part in the 10km category, completing the run in a respectable 1 hour and 07 minutes.

He said, “My only goal today was to just run and do not stop along the way, which I achieved.”

Cancer is debilitating  

By being a pillar of support for Harold over the past few years, this experience has also changed Yun Da’s perspective on cancer and has made him more determined than ever to do what he can, in order to help others with cancer.

Said Yun Da, “I realised that it is debilitating and that there are a lot of people affected by cancer. The caregivers put in a lot of effort and for Harold, I saw his parents having overnight shifts in the hospital one after the other. As a whole, I realised that community is really important. Cancer is something that you cannot fight alone.”

He added, “You must also have faith in something in order to bring you through the dark days, whether you are a cancer patient or a caregiver. For Harold, it was God; he was a devout Christian. For me, it is community. And you must keep on believing that you will recover.”

Click here to view the Singtel – SCS Race Against Cancer 2018 photos.