The 11th edition of the OSIM Sundown Marathon took place over the weekend with some 25,500 runners taking part in four different categories – the 5km Fun Run, 10km Competitive Run, 21.1km Half Marathon and 42.195km Full Marathon.

Click here to view the OSIM Sundown Marathon 2018 photos.

Organised by HiVelocity Pte Ltd, the OSIM Sundown Marathon had injected a jolt of energy into Singapore’s running scene when it became the nation’s first night marathon in 2008 and the event has not looked back since. 

From a humble attendance of 6,000 during the first year of its inception, the event has grown from strength to strength, and today it is Singapore and Asia’s largest and most iconic night marathon event.

I took part in the 42.195km Full Marathon category, which flagged off at 1am today from the F1 Pit Building.

I must admit that I was not really able to get as much sleep as I would have liked on Saturday due to other commitments. So when I had left my house to head down to the race site on Saturday night at about 11pm, I had been feeling a little sleepy, despite having already had some coffee in a bid to stay awake.

I reached the race village at about 11.30pm and I had a quick look at what was available there. The village featured a variety of activities that had included food trucks, as well as beer tents by Brewerkz and fitness classes by TripleFit x Pocari Sweat and movie screening. 

Title sponsors OSIM also had a booth to give runners the chance to try out their latest product, the sporty version of the OSIM uStiletto leg massagers that features a Sports Recovery programme to relieve runners’ tense muscles and improve their performance.

At that point, I had told myself that I would head to the OSIM massage booth after I was done with the marathon.

As well, a baggage deposit service was also available but according to some runners, the signages at the race village pointing towards this was not as clear as they would have liked. Said Mark Jones, 44, a computer programmer, “When I came in tonight, I was not sure where or how to drop my bag as the race village was too crowded.” 

But Cassie Lee Ai Ling, 38, a financial consultant, mentioned that the baggage deposit itself was smooth though. She said, “The bag drop was quite okay and did not have much queues.”

Soon after, I headed over to meet the other members of the media and the Sundown With Love ambassadors and we were ushered towards the front of the start line, with about half an hour to go before the race would be flagged off. 

Part of the OSIM Sundown Marathon’s charity outreach efforts with the aim to give back to the community and help the less fortunate, the Sundown With Love campaign had been more deeply ingrained as part of the Sundown Marathon culture this year, with the ambassadors having been officially introduced for the first time at a lead-up run a couple months ago where they had run with the event’s beneficiaries.

Amongst them, there had been a few runners whom I knew, such as Sng Boon Heng, Yvonne Siew, Darren Ho and Kerrin Kua.

Altogether there had been ten Sundown With Love ambassadors and they had raised funds for seven charities including Food From the Heart, Boys’ Town, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The other charity outreach initiative by the event organisers had been to have SPD (formerly the Society for the Physically Disabled) helping to collate the runner race entry packs for collection, as well as hiring the SAVH (Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped) to provide massages post-race for runners in both the Half and Full Marathon categories.

One of the event emcees, Ross Sarpani, had greeted me when I was walking to the start pen, but I think that I had probably been too groggy to acknowledge him back properly!

The sleep bug was beginning to hit me when I was waiting for the flag off to approach, but fortunately, Kerrin’s enthusiasm and energy had been able to keep me awake during these moments.

Our category commenced quite punctually this morning as planned. The marathon was also the final category to have been flagged off, with runners participating in the other shorter categories having begun their run earlier last night.

The early flag off time had been quite good for Mark, who said, “This is my second marathon. I did my first full marathon in Thailand which had started at 2am. When you run in these tropical countries, you have to begin at night so it is fine with me.”

I always find the Sundown Marathon to be a challenge though, because runners are essentially trying to overcome their normal body clock, running at a time when they are supposed to be sleeping.

Cassie had also thought the 1am start time was challenging. She said, “Your body is going to shut down and go into sleep mode but you need to keep on running. Going against our body clock is the toughest thing about this race. Starting the full marathon at 12am rather than 1am would have been a bit better.”

She added, “But I still prefer the full to be the last category to flag off though, because it means that the organisers can spread out the various categories instead of cramping everything together and causing congestion and bottlenecks during the run.”

Though the race was not hot due to the early hour, I felt that it was still a relatively humid morning.

So owing to the high humidity, I decided to take it easy, beginning my run at a comfortable pace in my easy heart rate zone.

The race route though, had been quite straightforward, taking us from the F1 Pit Building, passing landmarks such as the Golden Mile Complex and the Singapore National Stadium before heading to East Coast Park via Fort Road, running from Carpark B1 towards the Laguna National Golf & Country Club before u-turning and heading back towards Fort Road. 

With the long, straight road and the u-turn, the East Coast Park section, which makes up more than half or the marathon, was easily the most monotonous portion of the race route. But HiVelocity have no intention of shaking this part up though, basically because it is easily the longest stretch of road in Singapore that does not require any road closures.

The last part of the marathon route then took us through the Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Golf Course. This is a common but scenic route that is used in many of the local races throughout Singapore so it was familiar to me.

According to HiVelocity, this had been an enhanced race route compared to the previous year’s version of the event to avoid congestion.

Mark had loved the race route. He said, “The course was really good. I loved the route, especially the end bit, but I was so tired that I could not fully enjoy the view. But it was still amazing though.”

Generally, I thought that the marathon race route had been mostly flat, with some slopes towards the beginning of the run. The worst of these was climbing the Benjamin Sheares Bridge around the 8km point of the marathon. I admit that I chose to walk this segment so that I could keep my heart rate down.

I would actually prefer the race not to feature Sheares Bridge because this is quite steep and long, but at least running on this challenging bridge is much better at 8km instead of than 38km!

Added Sharon Tan, 39, a primary school teacher, “The route was generally flat with some gentle slopes up and down but they were not a problem for me. Running up the Sheares bridge was tough though but at least it was compensated by the downhill that followed.”

Agreed Mark, “The bridge had been the only bit along the route that was really bad and when I reached it, I decided to walk so that I would not burn too much energy running up and that worked.”

The marathon route also had the dubious honour of being the only race category to have featured the Sheares Bridge as part of the route according to HiVelocity, because it had not been possible to have the Sheares Bridge closed down any earlier.

As well, I also noted that there were also no bottlenecks throughout the marathon route, despite the fact that I had felt that some sections of the route were rather narrow.

But I must point out that certain segments were dark and not very well-lit. For example, there was one part of the route near the East Coast Park hawker centre where runners had to run on grass and this part had been nearly pitch-black. 

As well, there had been some tree roots hidden within the grass too, so it would be quite dangerous because runners could trip on the roots and lose their balance. Thus, having some temporary lighting at this section would have been incredibly helpful.

Also, there was one other area of the route where runners had to cross planks on the grass, which was a little bit dark. I made sure that I took very small steps when I had crossed this portion so that I would not trip and fall, but I note that the uneven planks may have been dangerous to runners who were running at a faster pace than me. 

But fortunately it had not been raining too much during the last few days, so the planks and the grassy sections had not been muddy.

Added Mark, “There were places along the run, especially at the end, that were very dark and this made me worried because I had not been sure whether I was running the right way. But overall everything was great though.”

For my own run, I found that the adrenaline and hype of running in a race, together with the hundreds of other runners around me was able to keep me awake and keep the sleepiness at bay for the first 10km or so of the marathon and as a result, this part of the race had whizzed by rather quickly.

The volunteers in the early stages of the race were also full of energy in terms of cheering on the runners, and this helped to keep me going too. Many of them held out their hands and we gave them high-fives in return, which was very motivating.

As well, I had also been looking out for the kilometre markers along the route with my quote on it so this too, gave me something to focus on, as I had been running.

This was because I had earlier entered a contest by Sundown Marathon where runners were invited to submit five-word motivational quotes. 

The best quotes were then shortlisted and then there was a round of voting to determine which quotes would be printed on the kilometre markers. Mine had been one of them. 

My winning quote had been, ‘Pain? It’s in the mind.’

The first time I found my quote was at the 11km marker and at that point, I stopped to pose for a photo with this.

For the kilometre markers though, these were generally positioned accurately enough along the 42.195km route, but I noticed that a few of the distance markers appeared to have been missing though.

But at least the direction signages were large, clear and distinctive, telling runners say, when to turn and whether to head left or right. These were quite idiot-proof, making it impossible to get lost along the way.

Agreed Cassie, “The route was quite okay and there were a lot of signages on the way, so this meant that faster runners like me, could not get lost.”

 Soon after taking the photo with my quote at 11km, the sleep bug started to hit me again as it was now well and truly past my normal bedtime. So I was feeling quite sleepy as I was running on autopilot, through the otherwise scenic and beautiful East Coast Park, which is Singapore’s largest park.

With one section of the East Coast Park being located within easy walking distance to my house too, this park is also my regular training ground. But during the race though, I felt this had worked against me to some extent, because I had felt so tempted to simply return home to sleep instead, when I passed by the underpass that led directly to my home.

But I soldiered on and forced myself to push those irresistible temptations aside, knowing that if I went home, I would never come out again to continue with my run.

As I was running along East Coast Park, there were some volunteers stationed there too. Unfortunately these volunteers seemed to have all dozed off when I had passed by, with many sleeping cross-legged on the ground. But I can’t really fault them though, as I suppose that it had been way past their bedtime, too.

The hydration stations along the way were quite well stocked though and they were serving either plain water only, or both water and Pocari Sweat isotonic drinks. 

Also, none of them ran out of hydration even though I was not running at a particularly fast pace. My only gripe was that while the Pocari Sweat was ice-cold and refreshing, the water was unfortunately not cold.

Most of the hydration points were also located roughly around 2km to 3km apart which is good, though there had been one point in the run where the two hydration stations were 4km apart, which I honesty felt is a little too far in Singapore’s humid weather.

Some of the hydration stations were also serving bananas or energy gels, for runners who needed the fuel. I had brought my own salt tablets and energy gels though, so I did not need to utilise these. 

I also noted that the brand of gels being given out had been a different one to the ones that I usually use, too and I realise that it is not a good thing to try something new during a race.

Added Mark, “The race logistics was very good and the aid stations were not short of any drinks, gels or bananas.”

During my run, I also spotted several runners wearing signs on their backs in order to spread eco-friendly messages.

This was part of a collaboration between OSIM Sundown Marathon with the Public Hygiene Council and Green Ambassador Tyre Lady, to encourage both runners and supporters to ‘Bin It’ and reduce large amounts of waste typically generated at large scale running events. 

Besides signages pasted on some runners’ backs, there were also larger Screened Disposal Areas as well as different types of bins for the various types of trash. Runners were also encouraged to dispose of their trash in a reasonable manner rather than simply littering the ground with their waste.

And I admit that seeing all of these initiatives at both the race village as well as when I was running, made me much more conscious of throwing my empty gel packets and paper cups into the bins provided, even if this had meant holding my trash and running till I spotted a bin to throw my waste into. I can only hope that other runners would have felt the same way, too.

It was around 30km of the marathon route when we reached Fort Road again, and I was still feeling quite okay at this stage of the race, still jogging past many runners who were, by now, walking. It had felt quite shiok to be passing them, I must admit.

Unfortunately, I hit the wall at 36km though, and so I wound up power-walking the final six kilometres to the finish line.

So the last few kilometres were probably the toughest part of the marathon for me, and I had to really dig deep to get to the finish line and not to give up. 

Agreed Mark, “The last 5km of the marathon was the most challenging part of the event for me.”

I spotted another kilometre signage with my quote on it at the 40km mark. I had felt this location was quite apt, and with me power-walking towards the marathon finish line, my words could not ring truer. Two more kilometres of pain and then I would be done. Once again, I stopped to take a photo with it.

It was sheer relief when I saw the 41km marker and then some time afterwards, the finishing arch was up ahead. I picked up the pace in the last couple hundred metres and ran towards the finish line, finishing strongly.

It may have been far from my best timing at a local marathon event, but at least I would say that I had completed the race in one piece and without any injuries.

I noted that my Garmin had measured 42.16km when I had crossed the finish line.

However, Sharon’s GPS watch had measured 41.8km. She said, “My Garmin measured 41.8km but I am not sure if that had been due to GPS signal error. It would be good though, to get the route officially certified so that we can rest assured that the distance will be accurate.”

I took a few photos of myself at the finish line before then heading to collect my finisher entitlements which had consisted of a can of Pocari Sweat, a bottle of water, a banana and my finisher medal and tee shirt. 

Then afterwards, I headed on to the race village and caught up with some friends there for a while before heading back home.

Both the event organisers and the sponsors are pleased with the 2018 event and how everything had turned out this year.

Said Charlie Teo, the Managing Director of OSIM International Pte Ltd, “Once again, HiVelocity has outdone themselves and delivered a more engaging race experience this year. OSIM takes a holistic approach to wellness and Sundown Marathon has proven to be an exceptional platform for our community of runners, who are dedicated to the pursuit of their well-being.”

And agreed Adrian Mok, 43, the Managing Director of HiVelocity Pte Ltd, “OSIM Sundown Marathon is constantly evolving to find new and better ways to engage the runner’s experience. But this year, we went back to basics to make sure that we get the basic stuff right and I will say that I am very happy with the outcome and that things had turned out very well this year. In fact, I dare say that this year’s event was the best OSIM Sundown Marathon edition yet.”

In fact, Mok also pointed out during my interview with him, that he had not yet heard anything negative in terms of feedback about the OSIM Sundown Marathon 2018.

He said, “I spoke to the race winners and some of the participants and so far I have not heard one thing that was negative. We realise that putting on a good race for runners isn’t always about inventing something new. We learnt from our mistakes last year that when you try and introduce things and deviate from getting the basics right, that is where we had screwed up and had made a mess of things in 2017.”

This is because for the 2017 edition of Sundown Marathon, the race pack collection had featured long queues of more than two or three hours and some runners had been forced to wait in the pouring rain. But due to a more streamlined process for the race packet pick-up for the 2018 event, it had meant that collection times were reduced to less than 10 minutes for many runners, me included. 

As well, runners also had the option of having their race packs delivered to their homes for a S$10 fee and this had probably helped to reduce the waiting times at the packet pick-up collection area further.

Said Sharon, who had used the delivery service, “I opted for the delivery service and I thought that it was good and everything worked out smoothly.”

And added Mark, who had collected his race pack at the expo, which was held at Suntec City about a week before the race, “I had no problems with the race entry pack collection as it was fast and efficient.”

As such, Mok would like to thank the staff members who had worked tirelessly through the night to make the event a success. He said, “I want to thank the team who worked so hard behind the scenes. Many runners do not realise the complexity of the work that goes behind making a running event a success. It is also not easy getting all of the road closures and authority approvals and this year, the security requirements that we had to implement were also higher than usual because of current terrorist threats that we are facing worldwide.”

But this year’s event did feature one new thing – this was the OSIM Sundown Marathon 2018 app, which had been launched at the start of May and had featured the event’s Athlete’s Guide as well as providing runners and their supporters with real time updates and location during the marathon. Each runner’s final race times were also recorded via the app.

Said Mok, “I was quite happy with the outcome of the app and I’m sure that runners were pleased with this service too. We also worked with LivePhoto to give runners a photograph the moment they crossed the finish line too, for them to share on their social media.”

And on a side note, Mok also did hint that there are plans to bring back the UltraMarathon distance. Previously, the Sundown brand had featured an 84km UltraMarathon and this was increased to 100km in 2011 and 2013, the latter being the last year that this category had been organised.

Said Mok, “I am thinking of bringing the UltraMarathon back, actually. It may not be within the Sundown brand but I am in the process of working on something. Actually, a lot of people have been asking me about this tonight.”

Full Marathon Winners of Sundown Marathon 2018