The Herbalife Marina Run 2019 took place last Saturday evening, beginning and ending at the Gardens By The Bay East in Tanjong Rhu.

Click here to view the Herbalife Marina Run 2019 photos.

Click here to view the Safari Zoo Run 2019  Photos.

Features The Beauty Of Marina Bay

Featuring all the beauty and grandeur that Singapore’s Marina Bay has to offer, the Herbalife Marina Run takes participants from the waterfront communities, over the Marina Barrage, past iconic landmarks and through beautiful Gardens.

And to cater to runners of varying preferences, there had been four different categories to pick from – these were the 5KM Fun Run, as well as the 10KM, 21KM and 30KM Competitive running events.

Ran The 10KM Event

Thanks to Herbalife, I had the opportunity to register for the 10KM Race. 

At the same time, too, I also chose to give back to the running community, helping out as a pacer for the 70-Minutes timing. So this had meant maintaining a 7 minutes/kilometre pace throughout the run.

My 10KM Race had been scheduled to flag off at 6:30pm. 

Reached At 5.30PM

So I had left my house just after 4:00pm that afternoon, reasoning that this should give me enough time to get to the race site early enough.

My original plan had been actually to board the official shuttle bus service from Stadium MRT to the race site, but when I reached Stadium, I saw that the long, snaking queue for the shuttle service was more than 200 metres long. With the bus interval being set at every 20 minutes, I figured that I may not reach the race site on time, if I utilised this service.

So I then decided to change my plan on the spot, and picked up a MoBike to ride to the race site. I didn’t want to entertain the thought of jogging over even though it did cross my mind, because I didn’t want to tire my body out before the run.

This was especially because it had been a very warm day and the sun had been out in full force, so I had found myself praying that the sun would go down fast.

I reached the race village about an hour before my category was due to commence. 

It had been an easy 2km bike ride for me, but had taken me slightly longer than expected to find a bicycle to get to the Gardens By The Bay East.

But I think that I had made the correct decision to cycle down from the Stadium MRT, rather than to take a cab or a public bus – this was because I had later heard from other runners that there was very bad traffic congestion at Tanjong Rhu and that vehicles were literally moving at a snail’s pace. So several runners had been late for their respective races. Fortunately I was not one of them.

Upon my arrival at 5:30pm, I headed straight towards the pacer tent in order to fix and tie my pacer balloons, as well as to catch my breath and also sort my mandatory gear out prior to the race.

Together with the other 10KM category pacers, I made my way into the starting pen at roughly 6.15pm. And the race began more or less on the dot at 6.30pm.

Unfortunately the sun didn’t sink down into the horizons soon enough.

So as a result, the beginning of the run had felt very warm and humid and I found myself breathing more heavily than usual as a result.

I have to point out that the start time for the 2019 10KM race had been later than previous years though – Earlier editions of the Marina Run had featured a start time of 5:00pm for the 10KM event.

A Scenic Race Route

This year’s Marina Run race route took us from Gardens By The Bay East and led straight to the Marina Barrage, where we had to climb the Barrage slope.

The Barrage slope had been the toughest part of the run, but at least it was within the first couple of kilometres, meaning that my legs were still pretty fresh when I was running up this slope.

However, there had been some construction ongoing at the Barrage slope, and this was a slight hindrance to my running rhythm because I had to leave the paved cement path and go onto the grass to run a small uphill portion, before then heading back to the paved path, once I had cleared the construction blockage segment.

After that, the route then headed towards Fort Road, u-turning at the Area B entrance to the East Coast Park, before then making our way back to where we had come from. 

This u-turn was clear enough as there was a marshal stationed there to inform runners. 

Though there had been a yellow coloured sign that was indicating this u-turn, too, I actually thought the sign was a bit on the small side, and runners who may have been going faster than me, may not have seen it. So thankfully the marshal had been there.

The positioning of the yellow and black coloured kilometre markings were accurate enough when I checked the distance to the readings on my Garmin, but I have to point out that there seemed to be a couple of markers missing along the 10KM route. This is not so good for runners who may have been using these regularly to gauge their pace and finish times.

There had also been some segments along the way where the path got a bit narrow, so our pace group ran in single file so as not to obstruct runners who may have wanted to overtake us.

Fortunately though, the running paths were not congested because the number of participants was not too large and the flag-off times had been spaced out well enough. I would estimate there were probably about a thousand runners taking part in the 10KM category that I had run.

In general, I had thought that it was a pretty straightforward but loopy route with minimal road closures and it was mostly flat too, apart from the Barrage slope and a couple of other minor speed bumps along the way. It was not a new route, too, and it had featured in past editions of the Marina Run.

An Aerobic Effort

As well, due to the flatness of the route, it had been easy enough for me to maintain the required 7 minutes/kilometre pace without too much effort on my part, thankfully. 

So throughout the race, I had been able to keep my heart rate in the Easy and low Steady zones, making it an aerobic effort.

However I admit that my fellow pacers and I did have to dial back a little bit on the speed, because during the first kilometre or so, the adrenaline got to us, and as a result, we began a little bit too fast. So this meant that towards the end, we slowed down slightly, so that we would not cross the finish line too early.

But that aside, I think that we did a pretty decent job of keeping the pace under control for the most part, taking turns to check the pace and dial our running back if one of us was going too fast.

Motivating Runners

And we also tried motivating runners whom we had spotted walking along the way, encouraging them and telling them that they could do it, and to try and stay with us as best as they could.

I think that some of the runners had been pretty thankful to us, and I noted that several did make an effort in terms of not letting us overtake them during the run.

Also, I spotted a few of my friends along the way and they had called out to me when they spied me. 

This is one of the reasons why I love running in races – as it’s a great way to catch up with some of the familiar faces in the local running community.

As well, we had whistles with us and I thought that these had been rather motivating and fun to be around at first.

But I have to admit that after the halfway point, continuously hearing the constant sounds of the other pacers loudly blowing their whistles got a bit distracting during the run – so I began to thank myself that I had signed up for the 10KM only and not one of the longer categories.

Hydration Points 

Along the way, there had been four hydration points, due to the out-and-back nature of the route, serving water as well as Herbalife’s CR7 Drive isotonic drink. This had been more than enough for a 10KM run on a tropical, humid day.

I took some of the berry-flavoured isotonic whenever it was available, and though the taste had reminded me of diluted Ribena, I thought that this drink was refreshing enough, giving me the energy to keep on running. Thankfully the drink was also ice-cold too.

Night Time Arrives

At long last, though, the sun went down and day gradually grew into night as my pace group and I neared the end of the 10KM run.

There had been light sticks and other temporary forms of lighting placed on the ground by the event organisers in an attempt to brighten up the race route, but some portions of the route were still a bit dark so I had to mind my step and take care that I did not trip up. 

Home Stretch

Soon enough, I saw the yellow 8KM marker glowing brightly in front of me, and then it was the home stretch, running past the Singapore Flyer and the iconic Marina Bay Sands, en route back to the Gardens By The Bay East.

As we neared the finish line, the pacers encouraged runners who were around us to speed up and chiong towards their personal best timings, or else to achieve a time under 1 hour and 10 minutes. A lot of the runners seemed to be very motivated with the finishing arch ahead.

Crossing The Finish Line

We crossed the finishing line in an unofficial timing of one hour, eight minutes and 55 seconds, according to my Garmin. I thought the Race distance had been pretty accurate, with my watch clocking in at an exact 9.98KM.

The post-race entitlements that were being given out to us, had included a finisher medal, tee shirt, a banana, and a bottle of water.

Besides the water, I had also helped myself to a couple of extra cups of the CR7 Drive drink that was being given out to runners after the event. It was sweet, cold and refreshing.

Race Village 

After the Race was over, I took some time to catch my breath and then I had a look around at the race site to see what was available. 

I thought that the Herbalife Marina Run event village was quite functional and basic, bearing the mandatory facilities such as the baggage deposit area, toilets and hydration, but not too much else besides that.

But there was also a body composition analysis over at the Herbalife tent, which I decided to try out for fun, and managed to redeem a free vanilla flavoured Herbalife shake for my efforts, too. This beverage was thick and pretty filling.

And I had been pretty pleased with the results of the test too. Apparently it seems as though my metabolic age is equivalent to that of a typical 21-year-old.

I also caught up with a few of my running friends after the race, chatting to each other about how our respective runs had been.

Unfortunately, besides the bananas, though, I didn’t notice any other food being made available at the race village – and because I had been feeling quite hungry after my 10KM run, I decided to head over to Mountbatten and got myself a Mac ’N’ Cheese Zinger Meal from KFC, to treat myself for my running efforts.

I think that if the organiser could look into providing some food booths perhaps with some meals and snacks on sale, for the hungry runners, then would have been a nice touch to future editions of the event.

Later on, though, I heard that there was supposed to have been complimentary dinner catered for the Marina Run pacers, but due to some organisational mix-ups, we had not been able to receive our meals.

A Fun And Enjoyable Run

But overall, I would say that my experience of the Herbalife Marina Run had still been a fun and enjoyable run for me, thanks to our lively and joyful 70-Minutes 10KM team.

Thanks Herbalife for the race slots.