Last Sunday, the 2XU Compression Run 2023 took place at the F1 Pit Building in Singapore.

Began at the F1 pit building this morning 

The home of Singapore’s Formula One Night Race, the F1 Pit Building is a common place for the flag off for many major running races in Singapore due to its central location and close proximity to the city. 

And back after a long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2XU Compression Run featured a 21.1km half marathon, as well as a 10km and 5km category.

I participated in the 21.1km category. Back in 2013, this race was my first half marathon and I have been taking part in it every year since. 

The half marathon was flagged off at the ungodly hour of 4:30am in the morning with seven waves for runners, from A to D.

The early start time is due to the high heat levels in Singapore.

I got there early 

I reached the start area before 3:30am and made my way to the portaloos before the queues got too long. 

Fortunately the toilet lines were relatively short and I was able to relieve myself pretty quickly. It also helped that the queue I joined consisted of all men.

The start pens and groupings 

The runner start pens had been grouped according to participants’ estimated finishing time. For example, Pen A was for runners who could run a sub two hour half marathon. 

But instead of pen allocations being printed on runners’ bibs, these were on a first come, first served basis, so anybody could enter any pen they wanted. 

As such, this created chaos and throngs of runners clamouring to gain entry into the earlier start pens in order to siam the crowds.

Two hour wait times for our race packs

I think runners may not have wanted to end up in long queues to start running, due to earlier experience of two to three hours wait times to pick up their race packs on the first day of the pack collection.

The organiser had received plenty of negativity over this.

Link: https://tnp.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/runners-queue-312-hours-race-pack-suntec-organiser-apologises

However, the organiser promptly apologised for the mishap.

An additional day for race pack collection from the beginning could have helped. As well, the organiser could have separated different lanes for the various categories at the race pack collection, rather than lumping all categories together. 

In other feedback, for future editions of this race, the organiser could consider asking runners to declare their estimated finish time at registration, with proof of an official race certificate for Pen A, and use this to print the race pen on our runners’ bibs.

Waiting for start 

Back to my recap on the race day, I got into Pen A by queuing up at the start area at about 4am. I was in within about 5 minutes. I was glad I had arrived early. 

I caught up with my friends in the start pen and we chit chatted for the next half hour while waiting for the race to flag off.

Super humid

I was already feeling that it was going to be a super warm and humid morning. It had rained last night, but the humidity levels seemed to be higher than ever. 

But what the heck, I figured I’ll just try and start at 5 mins/km pace while monitoring my heart rate and see how long I could hold on for. If either my heart rate or perceived effort got too high, I planned to slow down, so as not to cook myself.

Flag Off

We flagged off on the dot at 4:30am. I had a slow start due to the large crowds at the beginning all chionging out of the blocks at breakneck speed. 

But I tried to find my rhythm and settle into a 5 mins per kilometer pace.

Our Route

The race route was straightforward. It was a city route taking us from the F1 Pit Building down Nicoll Highway, before leading to the Singapore National Stadium, Geylang and Tanjong Rhu, Marina East, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, esplanade, and the Float @ Marina Bay before heading back to the F1 Pit Building.

The elevation was flat and the terrain was entirely road, park connectors and concrete. However there were quite a lot of twists and turns and it was rather winding. 

Nothing to see

Because of the early hour and the darkness, there was nothing to see along the way. So I focused on my run and took the chance to catch up on my audio books.

Bananas 

There were two banana runners in costume running near me at some point. 

After I was able to take a video of them in action, they vanished off into the distance. I didn’t see them again. But they did provide a bit of comic relief for a short while. 

Pace drops

I lasted about six kilometers before my pace dropped.

I definitely blame the weather. From that point onwards, it was a fight to stay alive and not slow down too much. 

My A goal had been sub 1hr 50min. If I couldn’t make that, my B goal was sub 2 hours. 

Some parts of the race route were dark as a result of low lighting, so I made sure that I watched my step carefully so as to avoid tripping.

Hydration was good 

The route hydration was good though. 

There were aid stations located every two or three kilometres apart and these provided either water or both water and Pocari sweat isotonic beverage. 

I really appreciated the fact that both of these were ice cold, which was such a sweet relief to combat the high humidity.  

However the length of the tables were very short and on a couple of occasions, I had to actually stop to get myself a drink, because other runners were blocking me and I was unable to grab a cup.

Usually I grab my fluid and run off, drinking while still jogging. I never generally stop to drink. 

Humidity is too high 

My pace continued to drop as the humidity levels remained high causing my energy levels to dwindle rapidly. 

I was running around 5:20 to 5:40 minutes per kilometre on average, in the second third of the race.

My only aim by this point was to hang on and not give up despite how tough it was. 

I didn’t want to be seen as a quitter. 

Pacing with a friend helps 

Somewhere along the way, I can’t recall at which point of the race, I realised that my friend Ben had been using me as a pacer. 

From that point onwards, it felt as though we were keeping each other going and pushing each other to not slow down. 

I think we definitely helped each other to push on in the last few kilometers. I was dying but I forced myself to just hang on.

The final stretch 

The final part of the race brought us to the Marina Promenade and down Republic Avenue to the finish line back at the F1 Pit building. 

Despite my fatigue and exhaustion, I was able to pick up the pace slightly around 19km.

I knew that I was about to finish and I wanted to look strong, despite how I felt. This tropical humidity is really energy sapping. 

Finished at last 

I finished the race with an official gun timing of 1 hour 49 minutes 16 seconds.

I think that my nett time should be quite close because I had been near the front at the start.

The course was short

However I have to mention that the course was short.

There were some points where the official distance marker was about 100 or 200m less than my watch GPS.

The total distance clocked by my Garmin was 20.53km. 

This means that the course should be 500m longer.

As a result, I think that some runners ran on after crossing the finish to make up for the shortfall, so that their watch would read 21.1km exactly. 

I guess this was true for some runners who wanted to claim a personal best and wanted the distance to be accurate. 

I didn’t run extra though because I was already quite drained from the run and just really glad that it was now over.

Finishing arch can be improved 

As well, the finish arch was just a normal archway with the 2XU logo on it.

There was no timing clock on the top, and it didn’t look like the finishing arch. 

This might have been slightly confusing for some runners who were anticipating a finishing arch with a proper clock affixed on it.

Finisher entitlements 

Our finisher entitlements were a finisher medal, finisher t-shirt, bottle of Pocari sweat, cold towel and a banana. 

The towel was extremely refreshing and the coldness on my skin felt amazing.

After the run

Following the run, I caught up with friends for photo-taking, conversation and breakfast. 

I think we all agreed that it was a tough run and we were all glad that it was over and that we had completed it.

Conclusion

This year, I would say that the 2XU Compression Run really threw a lot of challenges at us in terms of the weather. But I’m glad to have made it in one piece and finished the run.

I am definitely now using my 2XU compression shorts for recovery. I think that wearing compression gear after a hard run really does help you to bounce back much faster. 

But I do hope that future editions of the 2XU compression run will be more forgiving to us runners in terms of the humidity, haha….