Brooks Run Happy 2012

This was billed as the first ever Singapore Party Run. Unfortunately, although the organiser did their best to create the party atmosphere, majority of the runners came more for the running then the party.. Still, there were a few who really got into the spirit of the whole party thing and came decked in their party best.

This guy has a jester hat!

This group was decked out in fancy attires

Our famous Catwoman forsake her costume for this red piece complete with red hair

And Miss Punggol came in a sexy 2 piece

There was a huge party at the end of the run at Marina Barrage with free flow of food, drinks and live performance.

Now all races in Singapore should be like this!

Can't find your Race Photo Part 2

The part 2. Been busy and my apologies for taking so long to post this. But hopefully this will come in useful for those doing the mother of all race, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

So how to make sure your photo is taken? I don’t know about other photographers but in my experience as a photographer wannabe, these are the things that make me press the shutter release.

Originality

During a race, majority of the runners will be in the sponsored event top. So if it is the SCMS, everybody will be in blue. Anybody else in different attire will get my attention and guarantee a snap. Like this young lady from the Punggol Runners. She will definitely get many many more pictures than everybody else. Wear a bright color. Wear a bikini. Or don’t wear anything also can. Anything to stand out. Like this lady Jenap who is always in one costume or another:

Get the photographer’s attention

Wave, dance, do something outrageous. Do something different - kiss the girl next to you. Hold hands when finishing. Do a cartwheel. Push a pram. Use a walking stick. Whatever. Anything to draw the eye of the photographer away from the sweet young thing in front of him to you. No promises but where possible we will try to oblige and take the picture.

Keep to the inner side

The photographers will be kept at bay by hoardings etc and will be positioned at one side. Keep to that side. If the path is wide and you run on the far side away from where the photographer is, his lens may not be long enough to zoom in and get a decent picture in which case he will rather take the photo of someone nearer. And also if his view of you is blocked by other runners, he can’t take your picture. Which brings me to the next point:

Keep away from other runners

Try to run alone especially at the finish line. If there are two or three person coming in together, the photographer may only have time to take 1 person not all 3. Worse if you are behind a runner. You be blocked like the guy in this photo. So try to space yourself out when you see a photographer. Slow down if you have to. Speeding up may be a bad idea because the photographer may not be ready for you or worse the guy next to you decides you are challenging him and ends up racing with you and blocking you off from the photographer.

Join a running club

Many of the photographers will try to take photos of runners from the various running clubs especially if they themselves belongs to that club. Wear their top during the race and as long as you are not blocked and can be seen by the photographer, you should be good for a picture or two. Popular clubs with strong focus on identity and have their own attires are Punggol Runners, Safra and Team Fatbird.

Be friend with the photographers

As long as you are known to the photographer and he can see you, chances are he will take your pictures. I try my level best to do this. After all, that’s our purposes at this event. To take photos of our friends.

But after all this, if you still can’t get a photo, maybe you need to do something really outrageous in front of the photographer like maybe strip naked, bash up somebody or you could do the easy thing and just go up to him and beg for a photo.

Happy Posing and Running!

Eastside Deepavali Run

It has been a long time since we had an Eastside Run. The last one was in January this year on New Year Day. From time to time, friends have asked about it but with so many races throughout the year, there wasn't really any suitable weekend to do this and anyway, with so many more "official" group runs like IMD Running, Team Fatbird, I reckoned the interest in regional run has waned. And beside, it has not been easy to find interesting routes that will interest the runners.

But somehow, on Deepavali day itself, there opens a small window of opportunity. Most of the runners had started to taper for the coming marathon and it was a weekday and not a weekend so it will not clash with any races. So we ie TLR the big boss of Sgrunners and me decided it was as good as any to revive the Eastside Run.

And I am delighted at the response. I had hoped for no more than 30 runners but close to 70 turned up with some coming all the way from Yishun, Jurong and Punngol. 

As usual, we tried to incorporate some element of fun into the run by making the route more interesting and running into some "new territory". The only issue was the many semi-wild dogs which I had encountered previously but thankfully, with the big number of us, we vastly outnumbered the dogs and ran through without any incident.

A picture review of the run in this video


Hopefully we don't have to wait another 11 months for the next run.

The GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012

Once again, another weekend, another race. But again I am not racing but kapoing. Not that I didn’t want to do this race but last I checked, I lacked the physical attributes to qualify for it. I did told the sidekick I can wear a skirt and run but she said don’t foul up the place with people’s vomit. Wondered what she meant by that? Anyway, the GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012 return for its fourth edition with a little bit of variation.

Previously, Great Eastern Life Assurance was the title sponsor of the event. This mean they paid for the rights to have the event named after that and that was basically it. They do not have “absolute” control over the rest of the details and organization. What happened this year, according to a little bird, was that Great Eastern decided that they wanted to increase the distance from the usual 10km to a half marathon but the event organizer did not want to. So there was a divorce and Great Eastern went ahead and appointed their own organizer to organize the event for them.

And what a right move to do! Just like last year was a year when every race seems to be hitting the pits with its poor organization, this year, every race organizer appears to be trying to outdo each other with great organization and generous freebies. I have not done many races this year but from feedbacks from friends and the chatter on the web, it was a good year for racing. I guess with so many events chasing the same pool of runners, the organizer had no choice but to up the stakes. The Yellow Ribbon as usual set the standard with its well planned route and carnival; the Newton provided goodies galore and even the TNF 100 got its acts right again. But the GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012 must in my opinion beat all of these hands down and could possibly be the best for this year if the SCMS maintained its poor route planning.

Noticed the GREAT? In capital letters? It was that GREAT!

When was there ever a race when the 3 categories of runners do not meet each other during the race? The 21k women had a different end route from the 10k and 5k women. There were no human jam and no congestion except for maybe the slower 10km runners who has to merge with the faster 5km runners.

When was there a race where there is a “Powder Room” to freshen up after the race? The Newton race last week gave a cold towel to each runner to freshen up. The GE Women provided a covered tent with mirror and toiletries for the ladies to clean up!





A participant cleaning her face at the "Powder Room"

Nowadays, free food at the end of the race appears to be a norm. There were muffins, fruits and drinks at the Yellow Ribbon Run. At the Newton, there were free soya pudding, biscuits, fruits and ice cream. GE Women had muffin, fruits, ice cream and drinks and hotdog in a bun!

The non-participants were not forgotten. There was a “playground” for kids and adults under the stand of the Floating Platform. The baggage deposit area was also under the stand which means the runners did not have to queue up in the sun to collect their bags.

Most local races offer token cash prizes and product vouchers. GE Women had $10,000.00 for its first prize for the Elite category and $3,500.00 for the Open Category. Even the winner in the 10k Women Master’s category get $1,000.00. Except for the Gold Label SCMS, which other race in town offers such great cash prizes? 

So the GE Women had it all. Great race experience, great scenic route and value for money. All perfect except for one small blemish.

  

They inexplicably went to create an “Elite” category and invited 15 runners; both foreign and local to come under this category. The “Elite” champion gets to take home the $10,000.00 whereas the 2 runner up get $5,000.00 and $2,000.00 respectively. Then there is the Open category opened to the rest of the field. The prize money is $3,000.00, $1,500.00 and $1,000.00. The “Elite” runners also get to start 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

  

These are the top 3 results in each category:

  

1- 1:17:58; 2 – 1:18:28; 3 – 1:22:41

1- 1:19:35; 2 – 1:24:02; 3 – 1:24:28

  

So what’s the problem? Unfortunately, the results on the top row are those of the 3 winners in the Open Category whereas the results in the bottom row are those of the “Elite” winners. It was no wonder that the Kenyan woman who came in top in the Open wasn’t smiling when she receive her prize. One certainly wondered how these “Elites” were selected. Take the local runners who were “Elites”. There were at least 3 local runners who had finishing time that were faster than the 10th place “Elite” runner.

The "Elite" Champion

Do they really need to have an “Elite” category? Wouldn’t they just invite their sponsored runners and let everybody have a go at winning the top prizes?

 Other than this, I think looking at the contended face of the women; it was definitely a GREAT race. Too bad we guys still don’t get it!

Photos availabe at http://facebook/runningshots.sg