More than 3,000 runners pounded the streets early this morning at the inaugural Decathlon x Get Active! Singapore 7KM Race.

Click here to view the Decathlon Singapore 7K Race 2019 Photos.

Making running accessible to everyone

With the aim of making the race accessible for many, this race had three different categories – 7KM Men’s, 7KM Women’s and 7KM Pair.

The three race categories were targeted at encouraging people of all ages and fitness levels to run their first race, be it for leisure or to beat personal records, with the 7KM Pair category requiring runners to run together and pace each other throughout the whole way.

Said Nils Swolkien, Decathlon Singapore Managing Director, “Being part of Get Active! Singapore is a logical consequence of the vision we share with Sport Singapore. With the 7KM race, we hope to demonstrate how fun and accessible running can be for everyone.”

A sporting fiesta taking place through the Singapore National Day period, Get Active! Singapore is put together by Sport Singapore, which recognises the value of sport in advancing the national priorities of developing our people and bonding our communities. 

National Day takes place this coming Friday 9th August.

And in line with this message too, Decathlon had also partnered with Runninghour, by providing race tags for visually and intellectually impaired runners to join in the race.

Runninghour is an inclusive running club which promotes the integration of people with special needs, through running.

Race pack collection

I picked up my race pack from the Decathlon Singapore Lab in Kallang, the week before the race.

With several Decathlon stores situated throughout Singapore, runners were given the opportunity to head to the store that was the most convenient to them, to pick up their race packs. 

This had been because leading up to the race, each of Decathlon’s stores had hosted a race pack collection at appointed dates and times, to cater to the masses of runners.

And the race pack itself had been quite generous, consisting of Decathlon products – these were a Nabaji towel, a Kalenji t-shirt and an Aptonia cereal bar. 

Everything had been neatly packed inside one of Decathlon’s bestselling Quechua 10L backpack.

The above items came from a few of Decathlon’s popular in-house brands.

And I thought that this was one of the nicer race packs that I have seen, and furthermore, there was also no queue when I went down to Decathlon Lab to pick it up last Friday afternoon, so I was in and out within five minutes, which suited me perfectly.

Getting to the start at Decathlon Singapore Lab

Race day dawned bright and early. I dragged myself out of my bed by 5:15am in the morning to get ready for the 7am race flag off. 

I reached the Decathlon Singapore Lab, which was the race start point, at 6:30am, where I hung around while waiting for the race to begin.

Ambushed by emcee Ross

As I had been walking around the race precinct to stretch my legs and also see what was available there before the race start, the event emcee Ross Sarpani immediately ambushed me, telling everybody who was listening, that “Pris Chew” had just turned up.

Catching up with team-mates

Before the race start, I also caught up with some of my team-mates from my running club, Coached, who had also turned up for the race.

Start Pen opens

The start pen was opened shortly after 6:35am as runners continued to stream into the race precinct.

I headed to the start pen at about 6:45am and after a few cautionary running tips and words of advice from Ross about how the runners should listen to their body and so on, we were flagged off a couple of minutes after 7am.

My run begins

My own race began at 7:04am.

Race Route

The run took place in the heart of sports in Singapore – Stadium Boulevard – with a scenic route along key sports landmarks such as the Singapore National Stadium.

It had been a very loopy out-and-back route, with runners twice being required to run through the underpass leading from the Sports Hub to the Kallang Squash and Tennis Centre.

The monotonous ups-and-downs at the underpass and the stale underground air made the route more challenging than I had anticipated, but fortunately the hills were gentle enough to not pose too much of an issue.

Narrow paths and congestion

At the beginning of the race, I quickly realised that the paths were very narrow too.

This was because runners were asked to run on the pedestrian pathway instead of the road – and this was hardly wide enough to contain the 3,000 runners who were participating in the event.

So due to this, bottlenecks were created and so I was reduced to a slow walk for at least the first 500 metres of the race.

Picking up the pace

It was only after about 700m to 800m – that I was able to actually run. 

And at this stage, I quickly picked up the pace – in the aim of clearing the crowd and getting some breathing room for myself.

As a result of this, my running pace and heart rate turned out to be faster and higher than I had originally intended at the beginning.

But it had worked, because from that point onwards, I was able to run for the rest of the way. 

My heart rate never came back down, though. So I had to run the rest of the race purely based on feel, without looking at my GPS watch or pace.

Humid weather 

I think that it also did not help that the weather was pretty humid and warm this morning, despite the early enough race start.

A Potential bottleneck

I noted that in the last 2km of the race, there had been two lanes of runners separated by cones. 

So when I was running back, hundreds of runners were still on the way out. 

I think that runners who were slower than me, may possibly have been caught in bottlenecks at this section of the route, and affecting their chances of running a personal best. 

Fortunately I had not been one of them.

It also felt good to be running back and on the verge of finishing my own run, when there had been other runners who were still embarking on the outgoing leg. 

So I guess that this had been one of the benefits of having being flagged off in the first wave.

Race Hydration 

I also saw that there was one hydration point at the race start and another one at the halfway point. 

I did not take any hydration along the way because I do not require it, so I cannot comment on whether it was cold. But I feel that this is enough hydration for a short 7KM run organised in humid weather.

Decathlon Marshals and Cheerleaders

Along the way, Decathlon staff members as well as some Get Active! Singapore volunteers were positioned at strategic points en route and they acted as both cheerleaders and marshals. 

The ones whom I encountered were all attentive and alert – which was a great thing on Decathlon’s part. 

And I had thought they all did a good job in terms of encouraging the runners, clapping for us, and telling us which direction to run so that nobody gets lost. This was a real motivator.

The Distance Markers

Distance markings were positioned at each kilometre. I cannot say that they were accurate though. 

This is because according to my GPS watch, a number of these markers were off, being significantly further than they were supposed to have been. 

Also, I am not sure whether running through the underpass may have created inaccuracies with my GPS or whether the race route had been really more than 7KM.

But according to my watch, I had run almost 7.8KM when I had crossed the finish line.

For instance, it was particularly depressing when my watch hit 7KM but the finish line was nowhere in sight. 

At this stage, I had been running through along the Tanjong Rhu park connector, which was long and straight and so had seemed as though it was never-ending at that point at least.

As well, other runners also reported similar readings on their watches, having run distances between 7.6KM to 8.2KM, based on their watches.

Finishing the Race

So it had felt like sheer relief after I saw the finish line after what seemed to have felt like forever. I ran through the finish arch, completing the race in just over 46 Minutes. 

As I caught my breath, I thought that it had been a good morning workout for me.

Race Finisher Entitlements

Then I headed over to pick up some of my race entitlements which were a bottle of water, a banana, an Aptonia cereal bar and a sachet of the Aptonia ISO+ powdered isotonic drink.

Decathlon had been pretty generous in giving out these entitlements to the race finishers, so I saw many of the runners picking up more than one of these items. And this had more than made up for the lack of a race medal.

I tried both the cereal bar and the isotonic drink. Both had tasted quite good. This was the first time that I was trying this brand.

The cereal bar was chocolate flavoured, with raisins in it. It was not too sweet, and slightly crunchy yet chewy at the same time.

The isotonic drink, which was pineapple flavour, was refreshing and most importantly, it was not sickeningly sweet. 

The pineapple flavour provided a nice, sour note to the drink that had made it stand out in the saturated isotonic beverage market.

Catching up with other runners

After refuelling myself, I caught up again with and chatted with my Coached team mates as well as several other regular faces and friends whom I know in the local running community.

And it was great for us all to bond over our shared love and passion for running.

Decathlon x Get Active! Singapore Sports Carnival

Apart from the race, there was also a two-day sports carnival at the Decathlon compound, with a range of sports and fitness programmes.

The carnival had showcased Decathlon’s huge range of sports products, aligning with their mission of making sports accessible to the masses.

I had a look at the carnival and this appeared quite interesting, with sports such as stand-up pedalling, archery and golf available for participants to try, in addition to a few locally themed games such as tic-tac-toe and Jenga.

There had been a good mix of activities but I did not try any out because of the crowds and long queues.

Sports Festival commences

As well, there was also a Get Active! Singapore Sports Festival, which had commenced after the conclusion of the Decathlon 7KM Race, and had featured activities such as Zumba and CrossFit, as well as live music.

I watched the Zumba taking place live and the participants seemed to be having a great time.

Said Minister Grace Fu, the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, “It’s great to see this new partnership between Decathlon and Sport Singapore. I hope more companies will be a part of Get Active! Singapore and work with Sport Singapore to promote active lifestyles.”

Breakfast Time

After the run, I headed over to the McDonald’s store which was conveniently located right next door, and got a McMuffin meal for breakfast – before then catching the bus back to shower and change into a fresh set of clothing.

I had fun at the race

Overall I would say that there were some shortcomings with regards to the race route for Decathlon’s inaugural running race in Singapore.

But apart from that, other aspects of the run had been seamless and were organised well enough – and I had a blast participating in the event, as a result.

Thank you Decathlon for the race slot.