Note that the previous two comments about the route (carpark and highway) refer to the half marathon course which does sound pretty bad. The full course was OK but not special. There was one stretch through a construction site that was terrible however.

Good:
5am starts misses the worst of the heat
Good public transportation at start and finish (I recommend getting a hotel walking distance from the start - there are plenty).
Nice shirt and medal. Also a finishers shirt at end.
Lots of water stops - but there could even be more

Bad:
HOT AND HUMID - even at 5am.
Course just OK - no fan support.
All the races meet at the finish. 4-hour marathoners are finishing with people walking the 10k and half. This is NOT GOOD.
No food at the finish.

In all I agree that this is not a destination race. I live in Singapore but will probably not run it again

Running through an airless carpark, along the edge of a busy highway then having to fight through a wall of walkers/ slow joggers who were finishing the 10km was a nightmare.
This is one of the worst courses I have ever run... and I have run a lo of races in a lot of different countries. We can do better than this, Singapore - this country has so much more to offer.... come on!!

I ran this half as a destination race and expected more since the race directors were sending emails saying how great things were going to be on race day.
Good-medal, shirt, porto johns, water and med stops, volunteers.
Bad
Only certain Mrt stations open and taxi lines were an hour long at my hotel
Start was horrible and bottlenecked-more then any race I have ever been in.
Many bottlenecks during race
Too many times to count that walkers were on the course-even within the first few miles and crowded.
Ran through parking garage-really!
Ok, now we run a few miles on a highway with cars right next to us, fumes and heat.
Finish-1 1/2 mile to go and we are merged into a huge crowd of walkers-REALLY, how can we even try to pace.
Water and dry granola bar at finish. Wet towels would have been nice.

I expected it to be hot, but there was no way to enjoy this race and try to pace. HORRIBLE course and would never recommend to anyone.
I really don't think the directors care and have never addressed the issues, but maybe that is the best that Singapore can do.

Running in Singapore is typical of running in tropical locations, so know that from the start. You won't PR. Depending on how you deal with heat, you may be an hour slower than your normal marathon time. On the other hand, so is everyone else, and you may enjoy knowing that a 5-hour finish puts you in the top 20%. The packet pick-up/expo was very well organized and had lots of vendors, and was held in the expo center so very easy to get to via public transport and taxi. Nice sleeveless shirt in a string backpack for schwag and a bunch of ads. Race begins at 5am, but they could be better served by pushing it to 4am like Bangkok and Guam. Nice to get as many miles as possible in before the sun comes up. Adequate drink stations, although more would be better and some were understaffed. More than 17000 people ran in the marathon alone, plus all the other races, so you will be with people the entire race, which includes crowding at the water stops. The initial part of the finish was well organized with medal and finishers shirt pick-up, as well as water and sports drink, but after that, it was chaos. No other food available. Easy to reach start & finish via train, and near to many hotels. The route was nice, the runners friendly, and Singapore is easy for English-speakers to navigate. Many pace teams, and they seemed to do a good job. In short, the race was fine, but nothing particularly special.

Have done the HM a couple times. This year did the FM.
The good:
-Start is early to avoid morning heat (though it is VERY humid at 5:00AM). It was well organized with a sub-4:00 pen starting right after the elites.
-Public transport open 24 hours and taxi availability at finish was good.
-Course covers many Singapore landmarks/highlights and runs along the beach.
-Decent water/electolyte stops, but probably not enough given the heat/humidity
-Expo was well organized. Though don't know how easy it is for runners flying in for the race.


The bad:
-Way too many runners and races going at the same time. The FM merged with the 10K (90 minutes in) with 3K remaining. So anyone shooting for a good time needs to deal with a massive wall of slow runners/walkers near the end. I'm all for participation by all, but they need to figure out a better way to space these out.
-Trying to make SCSM into a 'gold elite' marathon is misguided. Having 25 Kenyans and Ethiopians finish 20 minutes in front of everyone else, pick up their oversized cheques and go home doesn't seem to add much to most runner's experience.
-There are few spectators along the course (but race starts at 5AM so...). There were a few intrepid drum bands and other fans  which were great.
-The end is a zoo. Apparently, they ran out of finisher T-shirts in normal sizes pretty quickly though I managed to snag one. Runners were pissed! (check out the 100s of negative comments on FB)
-Distance markers were spotty towards the end
-Most frustrating is that these comments seem to be made every year and simply disregarded by the organizers.

Do this race if you're in the region. Because of the weather (93% humidity at the start and 28 C at the finish), times will suffer. But its an overall good experience with tons of friendly runners.

Agree with some of the comments. Great course, full marathon could benefit from having course more through nice city areas/Sentosa. Problem is indeed the merge with the back-end of half marathoners which honestly is disappointing and slows things down significantly. Organizer should really pay attention to that. Finish area overcrowded and refreshment/drinks could really improve. Plenty and well organized water stations and isotonic throughout the course. Concerns have been raised before and I wonder why those changes are not considered. It would improve the marathon both for runners and supporters at the finish significantly-and be even more attractive. Great potential !

I picked this race for my 50th marathon and it was my slowest because of the heat/humidity and overcrowding. I would give the course 5 stars if it had less runners and the other races did merge with the marathon. The flow slowed down to a jog many times in the first 6 mi and other points later. Having the 1/2 marathon merge with 3-4 mi to go created more congestion at a time you really don't need it. Be prepared for a hot, humid race(75 with 100% humidity at the start and mid 80s by 0900) and dodging 1/2 marathon walkers late in the race. The support after the finish is abysmal. I finished 3900 out of 15000 and they only had XXXL finisher shirts left. I got 1 bottle of water, 1 can of sports drink and a granola bar, that was it. If there was more food/drink available, it was impossible to find because the sea of humanity milling about.

Singapore is a beautiful city and the course shows you much of it. The race would be much better if they limited the runners or had a rolling start like the rock n roll marathon series and completely separated the other races from the marathon. Need to fix the support at the end as well. Not many fans along the course but I don't really care about that.

It was my first-ever marathon and I enjoyed it! This certainly wouldn't be the last. I thought that, as a beginner, I'd be the worst among the women in the 10K. But to my surprise, before the 1K mark, some ladies had started walking. And I said to myself, "I wasn't that bad after all." I'm looking forward to the SCSM 2010 this year. The race kit was nice.

For anyone wishing to combine their running with a short break, this is a fantastic destination.

Well organized event from registration right through to the end of the race - very friendly and helpful volunteers.

The course is flat and takes you past many of Singapore's major attractions before heading out/back along the parks lining the foreshore. Plenty of shade, frequent aid stations and heaps of spectators to give you a lift.

There was a bit of convergence in the latter stages with the other events, but it didn't affect my time. The course was 3-4 lanes wide, so passing (or being passed) wasn't an issue.

The last couple of kilometers take you past the Singapore Flyer and the Formulae 1 pit straight, offering a welcome distraction in the final stages.

Plenty of good quality and affordable accommodation within walking distance of the start/finish line.

Highly recommend this event.

Generally, this was a well organized event, and the course is well setup and adapts to the climate well by offering plenty of shade in the 10-30 KM section, which was great. Extremely flat.

Self seeding at start was far better then I had expected.

Merging of the 10K, half and marathon groups needs to be addressed.

For marathoners in the 3:15-3:30 range, it was frustrating to lose momentum twice. First, when meeting the mid-to-back-of-the-pack half-marathon group at about the 32K mark (for 2K before splitting off) and then again at about the 39K mark meeting the half runners and the 90-minute group of the 10K runners.

I am all for the partipation of everyone in these associated events, and the congestion is not the fault of those runners, but the organizer needs to find a medium where all participants are satisfied.

Even from a safety perspective, I don't think it makes sense to require exhausted marathon runners at 40K mark to have to duck an weave through 9-minute-per-kilometer pace 10K runners/walkers to maintain their pace.

However, it was still a good event overall, and I would go back, but I really hope they find a solution to the merge issue.