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Marathon changes receive the thumbs up

SINGAPORE – It was its maiden attempt at organising the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS), and it had to do it without any early-morning MRT train services, which were unavailable because of track maintenance.

Participants at this year's Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore gave favourable reviews of the way the event was organised, especially the bus-ferrying services which were provided in the wee hours of the morning. Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY

Participants at this year's Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore gave favourable reviews of the way the event was organised, especially the bus-ferrying services which were provided in the wee hours of the morning. Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY

SINGAPORE – It was its maiden attempt at organising the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS), and it had to do it without any early-morning MRT train services, which were unavailable because of track maintenance.

However, it looks like Ironman Asia managed to pull off a good job, according to race participants, who gave generally favourable reviews of this year’s annual event.

Ironman Asia had introduced a slew of new initiatives for this year’s race, which includes hiring private bus services to ferry thousands of participants from 30 locations islandwide to the starting point, as well as having the half and full marathons flag-off at the same time and place at Orchard Road.

Runners TODAY spoke to praised the efficiency and smooth operations of the transport services provided.

(Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY)

Student Jim Tan, who boarded the bus from Hougang interchange, said: “Everything went smoothly, and the transport system was very helpful for runners like me who have no car. The bus left punctually and reached the start point on time.”

Darrell Tan, 23, who took the 3am bus from Bukit Panjang said: “It was great because there were enough seats on the bus, it was a quick ride and there weren’t any delays or hiccups. My only complaint is that the meeting time was a bit too early. The ride only took 30 minutes or so, which meant quite a bit of time to kill before the race started.”

Indeed, TODAY observed that the buses at the Woodlands, Bishan and Bedok interchanges, departed on the dot at the designated timings, while there also appeared to be no issues at the drop-off points in Orchard.

This year was also the first time both the full and half marathon were flagged off at the same time and place — at Orchard Road, between Orchard Gateway and the Centrepoint shopping malls. Despite that, seasoned runner Wen Long, who has participated in more than 10 editions of the SCMS, said that there were generally no “choking points” along the route.

“In previous editions, there were certain areas that had bottlenecks but there wasn’t any such problem this year,” said the 39-year-old, who took part in the full marathon.

“The only part where there was congestion was near the end, as that was when we had to contend with the bulk of the half-marathon runners who were finishing their race at that time. But, overall, it’s a very encouraging start for Ironman Asia.”

(Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY)

IT operations manager Rudin Leong, who took part in his fifth SCMS yesterday, observed that the barricades at the start points were much better placed this year. “They were easier to identify and find this year, and that helped to ease congestion,” said the 41-year-old.

“Everything was well organised, and people seemed to know where to go, which is unlike what I experienced in previous years.”

Some, however, felt the waiting time for each starting pen to flag-off took too long. Others complained of water stations running out of water. Race participant William Liew wrote on the SCMS Facebook page: “Water stations had no water for us slow runners! I had to pass five water stations ... before I reached a water station that didn’t tell me “Water out!”

However, another Facebook commentor Li Li Chua felt that while some parts of the route were too dark and needed more lighting, the event was “extremely well organised.” She wrote: “Otherwise a very very good event! Thanks! I had a blast!”

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