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Sunday, December 04, 2011

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore poor reviews / comments

The annual Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS) event has just ended with record 65,000 runners and sign up fee. Despite the higher fees and feedback from previous races, the many problems faced last year are repeated again this year, and some say worse ever.

After the race, SCMS organisers posted on its Facebook page thanking runners and gathering feedback as usual. Looking through all the 238 comments till date, I would say 99% are all negative. I shall sum up what I read and experienced myself below.

  • Too few bag deposit counters for 21km. Runners reached early but made to queue for almost an hour. Some gave up and ended up running with bag because they were told start line will be closed soon.
  • 21km were literally put to halt and made to stroll after few minutes of run due to overcrowding and narrow roads. Waste of precious time and not motivating at all.
  • Full marathoners complaining not enough distance markers especially after the 30km mark. Difficult to pace.
  • Zero water point for full marathoners from 30-33km mark. Many complaining dehydration.
  • Supplies of 100 plus (isotonic drink) is scarce. Not enough helpers and water points in general. Cut budget?
  • Another budget cut is on tiger balm. Some complaining shortage of tiger balm.
  • 5km and 10km start line is horrendous. The 2-lane human footpath along Anderson Bridge is just too narrow but thousands of runners trying to proceed from the bag deposit area to start line. Many reached the start line 45 minutes after the official flag off.
  • Many were left disappointed after receiving a Finisher Tee not their sizes. This is despite them indicating their preferred sizes prior to the run. Logistic problem?
  • Kid Dash event was a huge disappointment. Dash became walk because of too many "dasher".
  • Merging of all race categories at the final 2-3km mark prove to be wrong. Overcrowding disappointed many serious runners and resulted in lost time for them.


Apart from all above relating to the race itself, there is a report on Stomp claiming volunteers issued expired food with hair from the organiser.


If the organiser is not ready to handle mega event, then they really should not increase the number of runners. All because of $$$ I guess. What's the point of collating feedback when last year's feedback were not heeded?

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