Last Saturday evening, the Run For Light took place as a physical event at Punggol Waterway Park. 

This was in addition to a virtual race on 14 & 15 May 2022.

I took part in the 10km competitive on-site event.

The on-site race had two categories, 5km and 10km.

A rainbow of light

The theme for the Run For Light 2022 event was Rainbow Of Light, which signifies hope – emerging from a very challenging period the world has seen. 

When the pandemic first arrived, the race had pressed on with two virtual editions, in 2020 and 2021. I was part of the 2020 virtual event.

This on-site race is the first physical running event to be held in Singapore since Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.

Race bibs were mailed to us

The race bibs and event tees for the physical runners were mailed to participants in the weeks leading up to the event. 

Prior to the pandemic, all runners would be required to go to a race pack collection expo at a mall to pick up their bibs. Mail was never an option in the past.

I guess this had been a decision made by the organisers to prevent mass congestion.

As well, physical runners also received an email prior to the event, with pre-race instructions such as how to get to the event site, and the rules and regulations of the event. 

In the past, this would have been contained in a printed event booklet that runners would be given at the race expo.

The 10km on-site event

I was at the event site at about 5pm. 

The 10km was scheduled to flag off from 5.30pm, in three waves of 100.

Vaccination status and entry

When I reached the event site, my vaccination status was checked and verified, before I was allowed to go in. No pre-event testing was required.

Once in, I joined several of my friends in the starting pen and we spent some time catching up again. We were in the first wave. 

It felt really great to see so many familiar faces at a local race again and this is a true sign that Singapore has emerged from the pandemic.

Threat of rain

Earlier on in the day, it had threatened to be a scorching hot day. Thankfully, about an hour or so before the race was supposed to begin, the sun disappeared. Good news for us. This meant that it wasn’t going to be brutally hot any more.

But then, there was some thunder, and rain threatened. I found myself keeping my fingers crossed that we would not be caught in a downpour. A light drizzle would be ok though.

Prior to flag off, there was also an emcee who tried to hype up the crowd and create some atmosphere. But I think everyone appeared to be pretty tense. 

The only time when several people had laughed was when he asked who needed to go to the toilet, and a bunch of runners left the start line to head to the toilet, which he pointed out the location of.

We flagged off early

As most runners were already present, the first wave of 10km was flagged off early, at about 5.16pm.

Sub 50 mins for 10km 

Once I reached the start line, I took off, with the aim of breaking 50 minutes for 10km.

I didn’t know if I could do it. However, I was going to give it a crack anyway. I think I may have started a bit on the fast side though. 

My first km was 4.55 mins which was ok, but then after that, the second km was 4.43 mins. Perhaps I should have dialled in the pace a bit better.

Scenic race route

The race route was a scenic route around the Punggol Waterway area. It is a beautiful route and I would say it is one of the prettier areas in Singapore, aside from the Marina Bay landscape. 

Along the way, there were quite a few twists and turns where I found I had to slow down, as well as several bridges that we had to climb. So it was not entirely flat.

Route was changed

The actual route turned out to be slightly different from the one which had been posted on the event website. 

My guess is that they realised that the original route was too short and they quickly changed it on time for the event, but didn’t have time to update it on the website.

There were marshals stationed along the way to point out to runners which direction to go.

For me, I was largely able to follow the runners in front of me, so I didn’t have any huge issues with the navigation.

However, I did hear later that some of the runners went the wrong way and they had to u-turn back.

The rain comes

There was indeed a drizzle in the second half of the race but luckily it did not turn into anything heavy. So I kept on going. I didn’t want to stop, not when I was still on target.

I have to admit that my pace strategy wasn’t the best this time around. I did slow down in the second half and as my heart rate rose, I found it harder and harder to hold onto my target pace. 

At least my average km pace for the overall race was still 4.59 minutes or faster. 

Cardiac drift is real

Apparently, even though it was drizzling, it was still super humid, and that was affecting my body and possibly causing a phenomenon known as cardiac drift – which is a natural increase in heart rate despite no change in pace when running.

I spotted two hydration stations along the way, both serving bottles of water, and I did gulp down several mouthfuls of fluid as I ran.

Kilometre markings were out

There were kilometre sign markings which I spotted during my run, but based on my Garmin, many of these markings were short, an average of about 200m to 500m out.

The multiple twists and turns of the route did play with my head in the final quarter of the race.

I didn’t see a 9km marker.

As for runners who were gauging their pace based on the sign markers, the final two kilometres were definitely longer than 2km – apparently to make up for the shorter distance of the earlier route so that the total route distance would be more ‘accurate.’

Hanging on and crossing the line

I managed to hang on and I crossed the finish line in an official timing of 49 minutes 26 seconds.

My Garmin watch clocked in at 9.96km. 

It is slightly short, but still within the acceptable range for a 10km event.

My first sub 50 mins timing

This is my first sub 50 mins 10km and a new personal best. 

I am very happy with the timing.

Prior to this, my previous personal best for 10km was 53.01 minutes.

Post-race area was basic

The race village post-race was very minimal, to prevent mass congregation of runners.

We were presented with our medals as well as bottles of isotonic drink to replenish our fluids.

Runners were encouraged to leave the race site upon completion of the race.

It was also raining more heavily by this point, and many runners decided to make a getaway, so as not to be caught in the rain.

Overall I would say that it was a basic running event with all the essential needs of runners being taken care of. 

I definitely am looking forward to more physical runs in Singapore taking place in the coming months – with more frills, since social distancing and group size restrictions have now been completely lifted locally.