Organised by HiVelocity Events, the Singapore leg of the 2018 ASICS Relay Series took place last Saturday evening at Sentosa’s Palawan Green, with 1,070 teams comprising of four runners each, taking part in the event.

Click here to view the ASICS Relay Singapore 2018 photos at the photo gallery.

Regional Race Series 

ASICS Relay is a regional race series that emphasises teamwork rather than individual performance, with the participating team members working together to complete either a Half Marathon or a Full Marathon. 

Last Saturday night’s race had marked the final leg of the ASICS Relay Series this year, after earlier races that had taken place in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

In order to complete the race, each team member runs either 5.25km (in the Half Marathon category) or 10.5km (in the Full Marathon category) before passing the relay token to the next team-mate.

Each loop of the race route is 5.25km, so this means that each member of the team running the Full Marathon race is required to complete two laps of the race route.

The Singapore race had been a star-studded affair with celebrities such as Elvin Ng, Romeo Tan, Kimberly Chia, Joshua Chua and Zong ZiJie taking part, as well as national athletes such as Jeevaneesh and South East Asia Games Marathon gold medallist Soh Rui Yong.

Took part in the Full Marathon Relay

Thanks to ASICS, I had the opportunity to take part in the Full Marathon Relay category – together with my team mates Anna Lee, Allen Ang and Ziyu Tan.

In the weeks leading to the Relay, ASICS had given me a media team slot for the Relay, together with a media drop that had included a pair of their recently launched HyperGEL-SAI running shoes, a few ASICS Relay tee shirts in various colours, a pair of shorts and a soft backpack.

Event Kicks Off

A warm up session by Fitness First had initially kicked off the Singapore event last night, and this was then followed by an opening act by The Percussionists, before the first runners of each team then made their way towards the start pen to get ready to begin the race, which was scheduled to flag off at about 7pm.

Checking out the race village 

As I was my team’s last runner, I had quite a long wait before it was my turn to run. So while waiting, I checked out the race village and had a look at what was there. 

Apparently there was plenty to see and do and these included interactive booths such as the Trampoline booth which showcased the HyperGEL-SAI shoes and an exclusive booth selling ASICS merchandise. I had a look at the merchandise that was available and I would say that runners were definitely spoilt for choice.

Food and Drinks 

There was also a large selection of food and drinks available from local kiosks such as Traveling Cow, Carrot Cubes, JP Kitchen, Frost and Suntory, as well as photo booths for teams to take photos to remember their race experiences.

I was quite tempted to buy a hotdog to eat from one of these booths, but I was not really sure how my body would react to the food when I headed out for the run later, so I decided not to go ahead with it.

So instead, I took some photos at a couple of the photo booths, while waiting for my team mates to complete their runs.

I noted that there was a ball pit at the race village too, and even though I did not actually go inside myself, I saw a few runners releasing their inner childhood and pretending to play with the plastic balls there.

I had access to the VIP race village tent, where there were some catered food and drinks. 

As the night wore on, I was feeling peckish so I took a few of the food items such as the siew mai and the tofu and these had helped to keep my stomach satisfied throughout the evening. 

At the same time, I constantly sipped on the water and Pocari Sweat, in an attempt to keep myself hydrated for the run ahead.

And I also caught up with my team mates as they completed their respective running legs and they chatted to me about how their runs had been. 

That was when I first got a sneak preview about how hilly and humid the running course was, thanks to our first runner Anna, who had shared these insights with me when she came back.

Entertainment 

Throughout the night, resident ZOUK DJ Ghetto and DJ LeNERD also kept runners in high spirits with popular upbeat tracks and I found myself swaying to these songs as I waited for my turn to begin running.

As well, I was also constantly using the official ASICS Relay event app to track my three friends during the duration of the event, so that I knew what their progress was and when it would be my turn to enter the transition pen to begin running.

Listening to the continuous commentary by event hosts DJ Sonia Chew and Joakim Gomez from 987FM also helped me to know which teams were coming back and whether each of my team mates were approaching the finish line.

Chelsea vs. Manchester United 

But at one point, I was quite tickled when I suddenly started hearing some English football commentary being intertwined amongst the commentary of the ASICS Relay. 

Apparently it was because the hosts were updating runners of the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester United and Chelsea which was being played at the time and had ended up finishing all square at 2-2. 

I am a football fan myself, so I thought it had been quite thoughtful of the hosts to update runners with the latest developments to the scoreline.

But it would have been nice if the game had been broadcast live on a huge screen, like what had happened to one of the editions of the Sundown Marathon quite some time back, when the timing of the event had coincided with the Champions League Final that year…

Into the transition pen 

I eventually headed into the transition pen by about 10.25pm. 

It was about 10.40pm when my team’s third runner, Ziyu, came back and so this had meant that it was my turn to run.

Race Route 

The race route took runners through Sentosa and past the island’s landmarks such as Fort Siloso, Tiger Sky Tower and The Luge as well as Imbiah Lookout.

It was a very loopy and at times, monotonous route with a lot of twists, u-turns and out-and-back segments probably because Sentosa does not have an awful lot of running paths.

As the fourth runner, the route had been clear for me and there was no congestion at all despite some of the running paths being quite narrow. But Anna, who had run first in our team, had mentioned that there had been a fair bit of congestion and human traffic at the beginning of her run.

When I took over the LED-lit team token from Ziyu and headed out of the transition pen to begin my run, the first 1.5km of the run was quite good, until I saw the steep hill leading to Fort Siloso.

That had immediately deflated me and my pace dropped to a crawl immediately. Anna had forewarned me about this and so I was expecting it, but still, seeing it for myself felt quite depressing.

The never-ending uphills then continued on for the next couple of kilometres, from Siloso Point to the Tiger Sky Tower and the Merlion. Wanting to save my energy, my pace slowed further to a walk. At the same time, I was wondering when the downhills were coming.

Fortunately for me, after about 3.5km, it was then downhill for most of the way, with the exception of a few short uphill slopes that were, thankfully, nowhere near as bad as I had experienced at the beginning of the route.

Humid Evening 

As I continued running, I could feel that it was a particularly humid evening, even though the sun had already set a few hours ago. 

As a result, this had affected my pace and my heart rate more than I would have liked to admit too, and so I ended up running significantly slower than I had wanted.

For reasons that I was unsure of, I was also having a bit of stomach cramp during my run, so that did not help me with my pace, either. 

But I told myself that I had to press on in order finish the run – for my team mates.

Signages and Markings 

Along the way, I had noted that the kilometre signages had seemed to be slightly off. For example, when my watch had indicated that the first 1km had passed, I did not see the 1km marker till what had seemed like a few hundred metres later. 

However there was excellent direction signages along the route, with clear markings at the crossroads to indicate to runners whether to make a turn or to head straight. 

For a race such as the ASICS Relay where it is highly likely that the third or fourth runners in each team would be running alone, good directional signages become more important than ever, so that runners will not get lost along the way. 

As a result, I was able to stay on the correct path throughout my run and did not veer off-course as I had been running.

However, our second runner, Allen, begged to differ though. Due to the darkness of the surroundings and the fact that age is catching up with him, he admitted that his night vision is not too good, so as a result he had some trouble with reading several of the directional signages.

Marshals 

Besides the direction signages, there were also marshals stationed at the main junctions on the route. They were present to indicate to runners the direction to go in, as well as to warn runners of potential dangers, such as steep slopes ahead on the route or uneven ground and clear the paths for runners. 

This was good to prevent runners from tripping or losing their balance as they were running.

While some of the marshals had been alert and attentive, others were unfortunately half-asleep, possibly because they were tired from having been on duty for the past few hours before my turn to run.

Our second runner, Allen, also felt that some of the marshals were not doing their job efficiently. So as a result, there were several points along the run, when he was not sure whether he was running in the right direction and did not really receive a satisfactory answer from the marshals present when he had inquired. 

And he also felt that he may have veered off-course at one point in the run too, and had to make a u-turn to get back onto the route.

Perhaps the race organiser could have considered providing coffee, to keep their volunteers awake and attentive.

Quite Dark

As I was running, it was also pretty dark and some parts of the route did not really have proper lighting such as the trails near the Imbiah area around the 2km-3km mark, but I had thought that the organisers did a decent enough job with their attempts in illuminating the paths with glow sticks.

Hydration 

There had been two hydration points along the 5.25km running route and these were serving both water and Pocari Sweat isotonic drink. 

It had been good to note that the organiser had catered enough beverages for the runners, so even though I was the last runner, there had still been plenty of drinks left for me.

My Second Loop

Upon completion of my first loop, I had been required to collect a magenta wristband to indicate that I was embarking on my second loop. 

I have to admit that due to the hills and humidity, there had been one point when I had initially been tempted to simply run through the finishing arch and call it a day.

But then again, I knew that if I did that, I would not be able to forgive myself for taking such shortcuts and that the guilt would continue to haunt me. And besides, I also owed it to the team to complete the full 10.5km too.

So I took the wristband and headed out on my second loop of running. Even though I knew what to expect, I have to say that things were definitely not easier this time around. 

Instead, I think that it unfortunately had the opposite effect as knowing where the slopes were, resulted in me walking earlier, in preparation to face the slopes and try to conserve my energy at the same time.

Home Stretch 

It was a relief when I was finally done with the slopes and I was on the home stretch of the run, with about one and a half more kilometres to go. Knowing that there were no more steep slopes ahead, I kicked up the pace slightly to complete the run, as I had already wasted enough time walking up the slopes and catching my breath during these segments of the race.

When I spotted the arch that had pointed to the direction for the 42km runners to complete the race, I knew that there was only about 200m left of the race to go after that, so I was very happy to see it. 

I completed the final couple hundred metres and ran through the finish arch, where I then collected my team’s finisher entitlements of a medal each, as well as for myself, a can of Pocari Sweat and a bottle of water.

I have to point out, however, that the running route had been long and that my watch had measured 11km when I had crossed the finish line.

Post Race Photos 

After I was done running, I met up with Anna and Ziyu at the race village and we took some team photos together posing with our medals. 

Allen had unfortunately left the race site earlier, owing to an early morning event that he’d had the following day.

Race village closes

It was disappointing to see though, that many of the food trucks had already shut up shop for the day even though the race was still supposed to be on till one o’clock in the morning and there was still about an hour or so left to go, by the time that I was done with my race.

This was because I had secretly been eyeing a post-run hot-dog but this was not to be, because the truck was already closed by the time that I had got back from my run. It didn’t help that I was feeling quite hungry again after my run, too.

So in the end, after taking the event’s shuttle bus back to the Dhoby Ghaut area and then catching a cab back home from there, I wound up at a 24-hour prata restaurant near to my home, in order to replenish my energy after the long night out.

As well, I had noted that the event hosts and some of the organisers had left the race site early, owing to the late hour, thus leaving the HiVelocity founder Adrian Mok, by himself to make the announcements towards the end of the evening.

I would say that my team mates and I all had a great time at the ASICS Relay and that we all enjoyed ourselves soaking up the atmosphere and the race festivities.

Thank you ASICS for the Relay team slot.