Designed to stand out from your typical 10km road race, On The Hills 10K, as the name suggests, is aimed at bringing a much welcomed change of scenery to the local racing scene and at the same time, it also added new levels of challenges and excitement to running in Singapore.

Click here to view the On The Hills 10K Run photos.

So as such, the race, coming from the revolutionary Swiss running shoe company On, is a 10km hybrid race that is held on hilly terrain and has a route that consisted of a mixture of trails, gravel and tarmac.

Throughout the route, runners had been expected to run on a series of constant ups and downs through the ZhengHua Park Connector as well as having the chance to explore the tranquil greenery at the beautiful Dairy Farm Nature Park.

I admit that when I had first heard about this race, it had aroused my curiosity, because it is the first running event I have come across in Singapore, that is sponsored by On. I have been using a pair of On running shoes for the past year or so, and I have been finding that they are quite good and comfortable to run with.

The inaugural edition of the On The Hills 10K run, made its debut this morning. 

It was originally supposed to have flagged off at 7.30am at 30 Dairy Farm Road but due to a heavy early morning downpour that had been accompanied by thunder and lightning too, the flag-off time had been delayed to 8.30am instead.

Runners who had been already at the race site were happy with the constant communications from the race organiser and emcee, regarding the status of the race.

Said Sarah Datta, 31 and working in marketing, “You cannot really control the rain and it would have been dangerous for us to run through the trees if there was lightning. I liked how they kept on communicating to us at the race site, but it would have been nice to have received a message on this, before I came down.”

But those runners who had been still at home, felt that the communication had been lacking though, as had been evidenced by the comments present on the Facebook page of On The Hills 10K.

Because of the delay, the organisers had posted a message on Facebook at about 6am, in order to inform runners that the timing of the race would be postponed by about an hour.

As 42-year-old Pippa Thompson had pointed out though, not all runners had been checking Facebook so early in the morning.

Explained Pippa, a primary school teacher, “I did not get the message on the delay beforehand. They announced it in Facebook but I was not checking Facebook. It would have been better if they had sent an SMS message to alert all runners.”

And agreed Christian Tollkuehn, 49, and working in Marketing, “They informed us of the delay in Facebook but not everyone was looking at Facebook. I would have preferred SMS or email.”

As for me, I had already been at the bus stop near my place, lazily scrolling through my Facebook news feed while waiting for my bus, when I had seen the organiser’s Facebook message by chance.

Unfortunately, my bus was about to come by that point. So I had decided to still board the bus anyway to head down to the race site – rather than returning back to my home to get some more sleep. If I had fallen asleep, I had figured that it was not likely that I would be coming out for the run anymore.

The organisers eventually made their final decision at 8am, in order to proceed with the race at 8.30am.

This final decision had been made rather late, according to some of the runners – based on the Facebook comments that I had read. Some had made the decision to stay at home and not run because of this. Instead they had planned to collect their race medals at a later date.

It must also be noted though, that these updates had all been posted on the official Facebook page of On The Hills 10K race, and not via the 2018 event Facebook discussion board though, the latter of which Sarah mentioned that she’d been checking instead.

Said Sarah, “I was looking at the Facebook discussion board but I didn’t see anything. It would have been good to send an SMS to the runners to inform us, but at least there was cover at the race site so that was still okay.”

But having two separate discussion pages for the event may have confused runners like Sarah, though.

For me, I had waited out the rain at the Hillview MRT Station nearby and was constantly checking the Facebook page for updates. 

While waiting, I was also periodically using my phone to play a bit of Pokemon Go, and I managed to catch a few Pokemon. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to complete a raid there – though a Level 5 raid egg had hatched the legendary rainbow bird Pokemon, Ho-Oh, at the Pokemon Gym within the MRT station, and there had been nobody in the Pokemon lobby for me to battle the Ho-Oh together with.

When I saw the announcement that the race was on, I put on a poncho and headed down to the race village, reaching at about 8.15am. By this point, the rain had lightened to a drizzle but the main thing was that there had been no more lightning threat anymore, by this point.

The race was flagged off quite sharp at 8.30am. But instead of having multiple flag-offs as initially arranged, this was changed to a single flag-off, in order not to further delay things anymore.

Due to the rain, the run had been very cooling and rather enjoyable. I enjoyed the light drizzle as I was running, choosing to take the race easy and slowing down when my heart rate got too high, so that I did not over-exert my body.

Added Christian, “It was not so hot as the rain helped to keep things cool. So that was good.”

The last time I had run at the Dairy Farm area had been some years back, so the scenery was also wonderful and relatively new to me too.

And as promised, the route had consisted of undulating terrain with plenty of rolling hills. 

Some of the hills had been quite steep and I decided to walk up these to conserve energy but others were quite gentle so I jogged up them.

About 85 per cent of the race route was tarmac, but the short trail portions were a rather welcome change in terrain.

During the trail segments though, I had slowed down my pace a little, walking if necessary too, so that I did not trip and lose my balance. This was because with segments of the ground being quite slippery uneven and rocky, the last thing I had wanted was to wind up with an injury. 

But I did see a runner stumble a little on a rock in front of me, but fortunately she managed to regain her balance in time though.

Added Christian, “Parts of the route were a bit slippery but it was still okay for me though.”

I must state though, that despite the trail segments of the route, things were nowhere near as muddy as I had been expecting. I thought there would be lots of mud-pools and puddles on the ground due to the heavy rain. 

But apart from the occasional small puddle, it was not really muddy. So this meant that my legs and feet didn’t get soaked in mud and I was feeling quite dry throughout my run.

Large portions of the running route had been quite narrow though. Due to the small number of runners taking part in this event, this was, thankfully, not a problem, for most of the time. 

But with the route being a simple out-and-back one, I must point out that when the faster runners were coming back, it made things somewhat tight in terms of space for running. But fortunately for me, at least my pace or rhythm was not disrupted because I was moving quite slowly. 

However I may point out that some of the faster runners may have had to slow down though, in order to prevent potential collisions with each other. And this may have affected runners who were targeting a personal best at the event.

Agreed Pippa, “Having a different return route would have been better, because it got quite narrow when there were runners turning to come back the other way round.”

Pippa’s sentiments had been shared by Sarah too. Said Sarah, “Having a loop trail would be better rather than an out-and-back route as that would have made things more varied.”

But I would say that the running route had been distinctly different to most of the standard 10km races in Singapore that take place in the heart of the city, and so I had rather enjoyed running through the greenery and trails, getting closer to nature and the forests.

I had felt that it was such a pity though, that the Dairy Farm area in general, is quite far and also not very accessible to get to, from my place. Otherwise I admit that this is an area that I would have liked to visit more often, for running.

Sarah had enjoyed the race route. She said, “It was fun and I liked being in the green and the nature. It was a challenging race though with all of the uphills.”

And agreed Pippa, “The route was really nice and it was great to be able to run in the jungle. I enjoyed running on the terrain. It was my first time here and I would definitely be back.”

Along the way, there were no kilometre markings, but I thought the route signages were quite easy to follow, with arrows that had pointed runners to the right direction. 

As well, marshals had been deployed en route too, just in case there may have been runners who could have missed the arrows.

There was one water point at the 2.5km mark of the race. This was also the same water point as the 7.5km mark of the run, due to the out-and-back running route.

Said Christian, “The location of the water point was quite good.”

There were large bottles at the water station and a couple of reusable plastic cups but no paper ones. After all, the organiser had announced to runners, about a week before the race, that this would be a Bring-Your-Own-Bottle running event.

I usually do not need hydration for a 10km run. So even though I did have my Simple Hydration Bottle with me just in case, I did not need to use it.

But I must point out that the last-minute Bring-Your-Own-Bottle announcement was not a good move by the organisers. I must clarify that I have no issues with bringing my own bottle during races and in fact I think that it is more environmentally friendly to do so rather than throwing paper cups on the ground, creating a lot of unnecessary litter in the process.

However, if they had intended it to be as such, then I think they should actually have announced this from the very beginning, and not after already having collected most of the registration fees from runners.

In the last couple of kilometres of the run, the race marshals tried to motivate everyone to keep on running and to not give up, telling us that we were almost finished. This was quite motivating and I think that I had run slightly faster in the final stages of the race, as a result.

I crossed the finish line, still feeling quite comfortable. It had been far from my best 10km time, but I think that the main thing was that I had completed the challenging race in one piece and without sustaining any injuries.

When I had crossed the finish line, I received a bottle of New Zealand spring water together with my finisher’s medal – these were my finisher entitlements. I was thirsty so I drank the water up rather quickly.

After the race, there were also a free-flow of water, watermelons, bananas and assorted nuts & fruits – for runners to replenish their energy levels and refuel themselves with.

These had been the “premium food and beverages” that the organiser had advertised on the event website, so I suppose that the event did not disappoint in this aspect.

Said Christian, “I liked the variety of the food at the end point.”

Feeling peckish and wanting to get something to munch on, I took a few handfuls of the nuts & fruits, which had consisted of almonds, cashews, peanuts and dried apricots. I love nuts, so I thought that these were really delicious and addictive. Nuts are also healthy, so I didn’t need to feel guilty about eating them either.

Agreed Sarah, “The nuts were very nice.”

However, there was also supposed to have been some ice cream according to the organiser, but unfortunately this had already melted, so they had been unable to serve it to runners. I was slightly disappointed because I always love my ice cream.

And there had been a photo booth too, for runners to take photos to mark their race memories with, and though I did not queue up for this, I could see several runners posing with a large cardboard cut-out of a pair of On running shoes. I must say that this had looked quite fun.

I also spotted a massage service at the race village for runners who needed to have their sore muscles tended to. I didn’t need this, but a few runners had been enjoying the massage when I passed by the booth.

The prize giving ceremony that had been held to reward the race winners, according to Sarah, had also been done immediately after they had finished running. This decision was probably made in order to save some time and also to prevent the winners from hanging around in their wet clothes and therefore risk catching a cold as a result.

Said Sarah, “It was good of the organisers to do the prize giving ceremony immediately.”

Besides that though, the race village had been rather simply designed, and was full of friends catching up with each other, mingling and talking selfies while they had munched on the food that was provided.

Overall though, I would say that despite some of the shortcomings and the issue of not informing the runners about the start-time delay earloer, I still had fun participating in the inaugural edition of the On The Hills 10K and being a part of this running event. 

I must say that I am glad to have made the decision to turn up, despite the thunderstorm that had threatened to create havoc this morning.

It had been a great morning workout as well as a good opportunity to catch up with and chat to several of my running buddies – who had also turned up for the event.