Earlier this month, the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Virtual Run (KLSCVR) 2020 took place.

Consisting of 5km, 10km, 21km and 42km categories, runners from Malaysia and all around the world had the opportunity to take part in Malaysia’s biggest virtual running event.

Said Rainer Biemans, Director of Dirigo Events, the organisers of the race, “We wanted to create something for our runners that would motivate and re-energise everyone about running again because without events to train for, enthusiasm levels often drop easily.” 

And he also added, “And with the pandemic continuing to spread, it is now more important than ever for all of us to maintain our health at optimum levels and keep our immune systems strong.”

The run itself was free to register for, with race merchandise such as medals, finisher t-shirts and face masks, being additional purchases.

I took part in the 21km category and completed my run a couple of weeks ago.

I felt that the website had been pretty easy to navigate through and register for the free race, which is good in attracting sign-ups.

During the registration process, I noticed that local shipping within Malaysia for the finisher medal was an extra RM20, while international shipping to Singapore was an additional RM155.

In the days leading to the race, a reminder was sent to me via SMS to download the race app and claim my profile. Claiming my profile was an extra step in the race process, but it was not too difficult to do, as there were clear and concrete instructions in my email on how to do so.

I chose to do my run on the first Sunday of the race period, beginning and ending at the East Coast Park B1 area. This was a good start and end point because it had a carpark, toilets as well as a vending machine to buy drinks. 

My race route had been a straightforward and scenic one; out towards the city, and completing one big loop of the Marina Bay area, then returning back to B1. 

Some of the sights along the way included the Singapore Sport Hub, Formula 1 pit building, the new floating Apple store, Singapore Merlion and Marina Bay Sands. This is easily one of the prettiest running routes in Singapore.

That morning, the weather for running had also been very forgiving. It was a cool and cloudy morning and this made it very pleasant for running a half marathon.

As well, the race app counted down the kilometres as I ran and cheered me along with morale boosting words of support.

I may have missed the audio soundbite for a couple of the kilometres, but I think I heard about 90% of them.

However I also noticed that the app commentary, while motivating about 80% of the time, had been a standard commentary for all categories. 

It was a bit of a dampener, for example, to hear the words “congratulations to all 5km finishers” when I was only a quarter of the way through my own race. 

Perhaps it would have been better to tweak the commentary slightly to cater specifically to each race category.

Other than that, the app was quite accurate and the distance was on point, when I compared it to my Garmin. The app said I was finished when my watch measured 21.16km, which meant that the two devices had synced quite well.

However after finishing the distance, you still must remember to do one additional step – that is to submit your result officially. 

This allows runners who may not be happy with their race result, to try running their registered distance again and submit the best result. So unlike at an actual race, multiple attempts are allowed for this virtual run.

However for me, I was not intending to run the race again, so the extra step was a bit annoying, and I am thankful that a friend, who had also run the half marathon, had reminded me to do so.

I had a field time playing around with the augmented reality finisher arch and medal once I was done with the race. 

It was quite hard to position the arch and medal in the correct places, and took me a few times before I managed to get a decent ‘finisher’ selfie of my big, sweaty face. But I think I eventually got a decent enough one.

Overall I have to say that my KLSCVR 2020 experience had been an interesting one. 

While this was definitely not the same feeling as running the actual race through the heart of Kuala Lumpur and having Malaysians who come out from their houses at the Bukit Tunku area and to cheer us runners on, it is the best that we can do, during these difficult times.

But I do hope that with a Covid-19 vaccine well on its way now, the events industry will pick up soon and we’ll be able to enjoy the crowds and atmosphere of an actual race once again. I will never take racing for granted again, after this point.