17,500 sign up for (the full) Singapore Marathon

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Singapore Marathon

In 2008, the 21km and 10km finishers (right) throng the finish line like a day out on Orchard Road while the 42km marathoners get a much more pleasant finishing experience on the left. Expect similar scenes this year. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports file photo)

17,500 runners have signed up to run the full marathon at the upcoming Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon since registration opened eight weeks ago. 12,393 runners finished the 42.1km marathon in 2008.

12,500 have also signed up for the half-marathon while 20,000 have done so for the 10km race. 2,000 young runners will take part in the kids race. There is an overall cap of 50,000 for all race categories.

According to the organisers, 82% of runners signed up for the race within the Early Bird promotional period form July 16th to August 5th.

Full marathon runners will face the same headache again as last year – running head on into the half-marathon and 10km crowd from Fort Road onwards on their way back to the finish.

At Fort Road, they will hit the half-marathon runners. When they near the F1 pit building, they will hit another motherlode of runners – the 20,000 10km runners.

Last year, even elite Singapore runner Vivian Tang had to contend with the crowd.

“The worst was when we merged with the 21km runners after 32km,” said Vivian, Singapore’s fastest female marathoner last year in 2 hours 56 minutes. “Getting drinks was a bit difficult. A bit of zig-zag. But I told myself not to get upset and just concentrate.”

Don’t forget to include weaving-through-crowds as part of your training this year.

Singapore Marathon

The routes for the 2009 Singapore Marathon. All three categories – 42km, 21km and 10km – merge in the latter half of the race. For a better view of the route map, visit the official site, www.singaporemarathon.com.