An annual run organised by Four Seasons Hotel Singapore and the National Cancer Centre Singapore, Run For Hope is a mainstay on the Singapore running calendar.
The run aims to raise much-needed awareness and support for cancer research.
With more than 10,000 people are diagnosed with cancer annually, the threat of cancer is very real with the disease accounting for 1 in 4 deaths in Singapore.
However with advances in science and robust cancer research activities, the event organisers are hopeful that the progressive breakthroughs made by the National Cancer Centre Singapore team can lead to a cure.
2020 race was virtual
The 2020 edition of the race was supposed to have taken place on 23 February 2020.
However with Covid-19 landing on Singapore shores in January 2020 putting running events at stake, the race was originally postponed to August 2020. When the threat of Covid-19 was still imminent by then, the race was postponed again, to February 2021.
But in the final quarter of 2020 and the Covid-19 threat still showing no sign of slowing down, the organisers then made a decision to turn the race into a virtual event instead.
This decision was made in a bid to provide the safest possible environment for race participants while still supporting cancer research at the same time.
So this meant that runners were tasked with running their own race from 4th November – 31st December 2020, in the 3.5km and 10km categories. As well, a new 25km race category was also introduced in the virtual event for new signups who had wanted to run a longer distance.
Clocking my run
I clocked my 10km run on a Wednesday night in late November, running from Dakota Crescent to East Coast Park.
This was a one-way run that passed through some of Singapore’s scenic locations such as the Singapore sports hub as well as providing a glimpse of the beautiful skyline at Marina Bay.
The evening weather, after the sun had already gone down, also meant that the run was cooler too, as I did not have to contend with the Singapore heat.
Submission of the race result was simple and easy. Instead of uploading the result onto a website, which can be rather tricky sometimes, this was simply achieved by sending a Facebook message of the screenshot of our run to the Run For Hope team. The process was very easy to do and suited those who are not too tech-savvy.
Goodie bag arrives
My race result for 10km was acknowledged after a few days. Runners’ goodie bags were sent out from the 8th December 2020 onwards and mine reached my doorstep on 25th January 2021 in the afternoon.
The Run For Hope race goodie bags are always chock-a-block with snacks and other product samples and the 2020 one was no different, with muesli, cereal bars, wafers, chocolate and cookies amongst some of the generous sponsor items contained inside the bag.
While a virtual run may help with motivation to some extent, I feel that it can never actually replace an actual running event complete with the atmosphere, buzz and ambience that I used to take for granted, I hope that real running events can make a return soon, now that the Covid-19 vaccine has already landed on Singapore’s shores.
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