Local Races- Mizuno Ekiden and Shape Run

July is a local race month for me.  It has been sometime, since I do some races in Singapore.   It gets a bit routine running in Singapore, because the places that you are run are the same.  Usually it is some parks ( commonly the East Coast Parkway) and city area.  The heat and humidity makes it not much of a challenge as compared to places with different seasons.

This year I picked 3 races to join, I probably will not be joining other races unless they are free.

Running hour run:

Joined this race because Running Hour , the cooperative, is also one of the places that I have been volunteering.  They started off as a group of runners taking the Visually Handicapped and Intellectually Handicapped participants to engage them and get them out of their house to exercise or simply walk around.  It is not easy for some of them to get out into public places without proper guides and assistance.  Therefore Running Hour came into the picture to help them gain their confidence and move out of their comfort zone.

The run was in East Coast Park, Angsana Green.  There are race categories of 5km, 10 km and also a fun zumba stage for all those who simply do not feel like running.  The run is non competitive as the 1^st KM is for you and your partner to experience the feeling of running without sight, you will need to blindfold yourself and get your partner to guide you.  Then change over.  Believe me, this sounds like easy but it is not especially when you “expect” your partner to see the obstacles when he or she really cannot.  Another challenge is when the speed starts to get faster, you need to consider the swing and cadences at the same time the surrounding runners what are their speed and will they obstruct you.

I did the 10 Km with my colleague, she had fun running with all the people with special needs and agree that it was no easy task.  There were ample water points and all runners get a finisher medal if they do the 5 or 10 Km run.

The Mizuno Ekiden 2016:

From a relaxing Sunday morning run for Running Hour, I switched to a more serious note.  Marina Promontory, Satruday afternoon , 16^th July 2016, the Mizuno Ekiden gathers many strong runners in Singapore for a relay race of 42.195km, 21km run.  Each teammate is run to about 10 or 5 km respectively in order to make up the full marathon or half marathon distances.  The stress level is definitely there as you see all the powerhouses, running groups/ teams and sports man and women of Singapore gather together for the race.  The waiting point this year was strewn with chairs and tables for the runners to rest and relax with a Japanese Matsuri theme.  There were many stalls selling Japanese food and beer and also exhibitors selling Mizuno sports apparel.  The stalls also featured some traditional Japanese games like fishing the gold fish.

It was more like a Dinner and Dance gathering for all athletes.  I had fun coming back to home ground and seeing so many familiar faces.  The best is all the cool photos they took for the runners on a hot hot afternoon.  It was indeed very warm, and humid.  The strong sun rays did not help the runners with their run.  The first two legs of the race have to beat the heat and the worse part was climbing up the Marina Barrage on the hot day.

But as the evening come, the weather was more forgiving but still humid.  The finishers get their special medal where by four medals can be combined to form one big medal.  Finishers get the medal and some hydration with banana.

SHAPE RUN Singapore:

Every year, I try my best to join SHAPE run.  There are a couple of reasons to do so:

• Cheap price compared to other races.
• Good deal for a bountiful goodie bag : I mean serious goodie bag, they have real travel sized samples from the sponsors. The goodie bag itself is good and sturdy, with a nice tee shirt.  There are not much of brochure type of vouchers and advertisements to choke up your dustbins.

Each Kit Contains:

• The race expo features many sporting goods catered to females and also real deals for ladies to try out.

• The race village is filled with good freebies and photo opportunities.

The race comes in 5km, 10km and 15km categories.

There are also many opportunities to meet a lot of runner ladies friends and have fun with them.  This year the route doesn’t go up to the main traffic much.  Focusing around the Bay and Kallang area it is actually scenic and nice, but you must run fast to avoid the sunlight.  The race village is full of goodies from Suppliers like Biotherm, Duo rewards, Sofy and Senka products.  There were also a couple of Beauty slimming services and products to assist in weight loss program.  The biggest sponsor, Sketchers was also there to set up their small little store in the Marina Bayfront Event Space.  I managed to finish the race before the strong rays shines in.  The location of the race was also very convenient and accessible.  Really enjoyed this race.