The Compressport Run took place this morning – for the first time in Singapore.
A road race sponsored by sports apparel company Compressport and organised by HiVelocity Events, the aim of this race had been to create a platform for runners to run together. Through the race, Compressport had hopes to fuel the running passion by building a strong and inclusive running community in Singapore.
Runners taking a pre-race wefie
The race comprised of two categories, a 5km run and a 10km run.
I ran in the 5km event.
Reaching the race site
Let’s have a group shot before we run!
For me, it had been quite hard to wake up this morning, because I had been at the National Day Parade preview the previous night. And I had been tempted to sleep in longer. But fortunately I didn’t.
I reached the race site, which was at Nicoll Highway, surprisingly, quite early, so I hung around with some friends and we took photos together prior to the flag off of the 10km race which was at 6.30am.
The 10km event had finally flagged off with three waves of runners.
Say cheese!
However it had been very difficult to take photos of the starting line thanks to barricades and strict security guards.
After this, I then walked around the race site and was able to catch some of the winners of the 10km race coming back into the race village before the 5km run had been flagged off, at 7.30am. A couple of familiar faces I had recognised were Marcus Ong and Stuart Haynes.
Some winners from the 10km category.
Start pen opens
The 5km start pen opened at about 7.15am and the run started at 7.30am, after some warm-up exercises.
And the emcee, Ross Sarpani, had tried to create an infectious mood amongst the runners for the event. He is a staple at emceeing in many of the running races around Singapore.
Start pen for the 5km race.
HiVelocity Events’ Director, Adrian Mok, was also there to flag off the 5km event… immediately after having completed running the 10km race himself.
The actual running
The running route was a scenic city route that I have run along a few times before. We began from Nicoll Highway, then headed toward the Sports Hub and the Geylang Park Connector before running in the direction of Rochor River and the Golden Mile Complex and then returning to the starting line.
The running route was a simple one.
There was a hydration station at the halfway point of the 5km route serving ice-cold water and isotonic drink. This definitely would have helped quench the thirst of runners in the hot, humid weather.
The kilometre markers were quite accurate – and they corresponded with when my GPS watch had buzzed to signify the completion of each kilometre.
Runners in action.
Overall though, the humidity may have been a little on the high side, but it was a well organised race with thankfully, no bottlenecks – I had begun the run at the front of the starting pen so perhaps that had helped to contribute to the fact that the running route was not congested.
However the distance of the running route had seemed to be about 200 metres short though – according to my GPS watch.
Shagged runners upon completion.
Emilie Tan, who had taken part in the 10km race, had some good things to say about the Compressport Run. The 31 year old, who is self employed, said on social media, “The route was super scenic and the course was really well marked. I also loved the race singlets and the calf sleeves that had been given out at the race entry pack collection.”
The first two runners from the 10km category.
Runners had been given Compressport brand singlets and calf sleeves, when they had collected with their race entry packs.
Completing the race
And runners had received a delicious ice-cold isotonic drink and a medal when finishing their respective races.
Runners received a medal and an isotonic drink upon finishing the run.
Besides that, I also noticed that there had been a few sponsor booths available at the race site, but I was quite sleepy and tired by then – so I unfortunately did not really take the time to explore these before heading off for some breakfast with running kakis.
The baggage deposit attracted long snaking queues.
And after the race, the queue to collect my bag had been quite long. Possibly this could have been averted if there had been more counters available for runners though.
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