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SINGAPORE: The first and only night marathon in Singapore has,unfortunately, drawn flak again. More than 28,000 people have signed up for Saturday's 2012 SundownMarathon, and many have taken to the event's Facebook page to voicetheir anger and frustration after being informed only two weeks agoof last-minute changes to the race route and start times. The fifth edition of the marathon was initially expected to debut anew route that would take runners in the 42km marathon from thestart point at Nicoll Highway to the West Coast before heading backto the city. But at the Sundown Race Expo on May 11, event organisers HiVelocityannounced that the full marathon participants will now start atNicoll Highway and head towards East Coast Park via the MarinaBarrage before making their way back to the start point. Race start times for all three events have also been pushed back byan hour to 10.30pm for the 10km category, and 12.30am for the 21kmand 42km race. At last year's marathon, participants from all three categoriesstarted and ended their races at the Changi Exhibition Centre. "This must be the worst Sundown Marathon ever ... (they) decided tochange the time as and when they like. And now, the route itself ischanged," said Eugene Tan in a posted comment. Added Hilary Francis: "Changing the start time so significantly(two) weeks before the race is irresponsible and shows a lack ofplanning." Runner Cindy S E Peh also posted a comment which said: "With thehalf and full marathon flagging off together ... Human jameverywhere! Just that it's happening in the middle of the nightthis time round. Thumbs down." But HiVelocity director Jeffrey Foo told Today that they had beenworking on the issue with the Traffic Police, the Land TransportAuthority (LTA), the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and otherrelevant parties since December, and had to consider factors likethe event's impact on businesses and stakeholders along the raceroute during peak hours and disruption to traffic. A solution wasonly reached two weeks ago. "We understand that (the changes were late) but we were hoping topush till the last minute. We will continue to work on getting theroute to the West Coast for next year," said Foo. "The learning lesson is we want to engage authorities at a muchearlier time (in future)." Foo also acknowledged participants' concerns over the decision toflag off the 21km and 42km race together at 12.30am at the startpoint. To help deal with that, runners will be segregated by the differenttime pens - where runners will stand in their estimated completiontime zone - to mimimise congestion at the Nicoll Highway flag-offpoint. With the races expected to finish later on Sunday morning,transport arrangements have also been made for a late night busservice (S$5) from 12am to 6am to ferry participants from the racevillage to designated MRT stations islandwide. "We want to give half and full marathon runners, especially thefast runners a chance of breaking away and avoid them bunchingtogether. There will also be bicycles to clear the way for runnersleading the pack," said Foo. "One reason for delaying the races by an hour was because of theSaturday night traffic and safety. This is to give participants anundisrupted and better race experience." - TODAY. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Ultra-clear Glass Manufacturer , Curved Tempered Glass, and more. For more , please visit Tempered Safety Glass today!
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