SCSM 2007 - Part 1

Please click here to view 141 photos by courtesy of Hon You (the photographer) and Jason Lee (for the photographic equipment). Stay tune for many more photos.
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Note to bloggers: when you use the photos, please acknowledge the source:

a. the photographers (for going all the way to Singapore to take the photos)

b. yours truly (KC - for spending time processing them) and the KC&SR weblog
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The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007 ("SCSM" or Singapore International Marathon, SIM) organized by Standard Chartered Bank must be one of the hottest races on earth not because of Singapore’s very close proximity to the Equator; but with almost 50,000 runners participating on Sunday morning, 2 December, the extra heat generated from those highly-charged runners would sure increase the temperature.

Even the runners were real hot! Many were seen running bare top (guys only). Even the thin running vests were considered hindering the smooth perspiration, and thus unnecessary. With the hotness, not surprised that we saw sweat turned into oil.
The super fast Kenyan runners who dominated the top positions of SIM, years after years.

Even the photographers from Pacesetters Club were also influenced by the heat, busy clicking away. I have with me now almost 2,000 photos taken by Jason Lee, Hon You, Weng! And I have not received those from Chan Wing Kai yet.
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Let me share with you three humorous stories happily told to me by the runners:

Story # 1
One of the lady marathon runners in this group, after receiving a banana at around 30km mark, was actually grabbing the big banana and ran until she almost crossed the finishing line in her maiden marathon run. BRAVO! It is good to hear that a new runner crossed the finishing line, no matter what they were holding. It is obviously safe to hold something in hand as the proverb says, " A bird in hand is worth two in the ..."

I would think that the big banana would resembled the baton as in track and field events – holding it actually boosted the confident level and visualizing the euphoric moment of sure crossing the finishing line. Next time, we have to inform the new marathon runners that the banana was supposed to be eaten.
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Story # 2
One of the guy runners in this group encountered leg muscle pain. The pain was quite serious as there were multiple cramps starting from the groin, down to the thighs and to the legs muscles. So, when he saw the Aid Station, he happily asked the pretty girl manning the station to spray the anti-muscle cramp ointment for him. She agreed, but not the groin area. So, he took the spray and sprayed himself. Obviously, his hands were shaking due to the running and the spray got in contact with the "very sensitive part". I could imagine that would fire him up, nullified all cramps and charged ahead.
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Story # 3
Another guy runners in this group encountered leg muscle pain also. So he ran pass the Aid Station and decided to get a little Deep Heat ointment/cream to ease the pain. Usually, the girls at the Aid Station were wearing gloves so that they could squeeze the creams on their hands and the runners would just do a hand-shake and transferred the cream. Wow! That was really a genius idea for swift transmission task. So this runner just shook hand with one of the girls. Touching her gentle hands, he felt that this girl was not wearing a glove. And there was no cream been transferred too. Then he realized that the girl wanted to hand him the Deep Heat cream by not using the standard protocol transferring method.

Written by KC

With chilly red hot running vests

Written by KC