Sunday, December 04, 2011
On Marathon morning, I woke up naturally. The sky was still dark. Thinking it was still early, I waited and waited in bed, but still no ringing of the alarm clock.
After what seemed to be a 15-minute wait on bed, I reached for my phone. It gave me a big shock--6:15am! The full marathon had flagged off at 5am! I saw the 11 missed calls by Vincent and the 3 smses. I knew I was quite screwed.
Papa drove me to Orchard, where the full marathon start point was. It was now deserted, the road closures were being prepared to be reopened, and the trucks for baggage were long gone. It was quite a helpless feel.
However, not wanting to just head home to hit the bed yet, I requested Papa to drive me to Harbourfront, where the half-marathon start point was. By the time I reached, it was already 7:15am. Flag-off for half-marathon would have taken place at 6:30am. But the sight of many other late-comers at half-marathon gave me some consolation. It was 7:35am when I reached the Start point, already an hour late. The officials were already forbidding people to start and enter the route, and no official timings would be taken by now. But frustrated runners (quite a number behind me) went ahead and entered the area.
Route-wise, it was bad. I seriously think that SAFRA does a consistently better job at organising Half-marathons. Not just the route, but also logistics. There was a horrible lack of distance markers for Half-marathon (and I heard for the Full version as well), and the water points were placed at 4km away from each other! Official vehicles were also allowed to travel within the race route alongside runners, making it an inconvenience because runners had to make way everytime those cars passed.
It was, in my opinion, one of the worst organisers of the SCMS in recent years. A quick check on the event facebook shows that last year's Finisher's Tee saga resurfaced this year once again. And a list of complaints as well. The good thing they did well though, was the overnight train services, which I totally missed out. They really need to consider all the feedback this year and improve next year, if not this event will never make it to the list of Gold Marathons in the world.
Of course, I'll need to ensure that I'll not miss any race in future. I'm glad I had the option of doing the next-best alternative (Half-marathon) because it wasn't too late when I woke up. It was a little regrettable, but there's always a next year to look forward to.
人生是黑白的.
9:14 PM <3
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