Second time I have done this race, the last was in 2010.

The positives:

- Much improved start/finish location on Nicoll Highway not far from Suntec City. Best of all there is an MRT station right next to the start line so much easier to get to the start then in previous years. The MRT is closed by the time you finsih the marathon/half marathon, but it is only a short walk to find a taxi.

- Was able to pick my number up on race evening itself (although organisers still don't advertise this, I had to ask several times).

- Course was much more interesting than last time. Course goes around the city, past the Singapore Flyer, past Marina Bay Sands, much more interesting than the old course near the airport. Course is not all on roads - some is road, some paths (shared with the public, although with a 1230am start there were not a lot of people around), also through parks (had to run on grass at one point). Some parts of course were quite dark, but this added to the novelty. A real night marathon.

- General organisation was excellent. Well stocked drink stations with water and sports drink. Water, sports drink, bananas and medal at the finish. Bag storage very efficient. Good facilities/orgnaisation at start line, plenty of water and toilets.

Negatives:

- Pre-race information patchy. Why can't they give details about race day packet collection to out of town entrants? Why can't they provide detailed directions for walking to the start line? No idea...

- The course was not completely closed to traffic. Even the top 5% of runners were stopped at several points in the race to let traffic through. Awful!

Overall a much better experience than 2010. This race has a lot of potential (and is now very popular) and I like the novelty of running at night. Organisation has improved, but I was disappointed that the course was not closed to traffic and i was forced to stop and wait for traffic to cross the course. Hopefully this race can continue to improve.

Agree with the other reviews. Logistics of this race are horendous, and it seems the same every year notwithstanding everyone's comments. Getting home took almost two hours (and Singapore is a small place). Course is weak, you run along a half closed road for most of it. Most poorly organized of the 10 or so races I've done in Singapore.

The organization was off from the start; runners were asked to pick up their race kits a week earlier. A bit difficult for people coming in from another country.

After a few e-mails (as the web site was very poor information-wise) I was finally told that I could pick up my race kit on the race day itself, without specifying where.

There are shuttle buses from the closest MRT station. These buses cost money and you better have exact change as you will not get on otherwise.

Traffic was horrible and we spent 1.5 hours in a traffic jam, missing the official start by an hour, along with a few hundred other people.

Support during the run was good though it would have been nice to have some food; there was only one station with bananas right at the end.

After finishing the run there were too few taxis and we waited over an hour, aching and ready for bed.

I will not come back, that is for sure.

Having only run European marathons, this was a tough one to deal with in terms of heat and humidity. The event was well organized and at the start/finish line, lots to do for spectators. The course was dull and support patchy but quite a novelty to start it at 10pm at night. I would recommend, but not if you are looking for a PB. Thanks Sundown.

Really unimpressed with the way it is organized. We had to fork out transport costs from the bus pick-up point in order to get to the race site - only to realize that we had been shortchanged for the 21K run.

This is easily the most badly organized major event I have participated in. Organization was so bad that a few locals even wrote in to the major Singapore newspaper expressing their disappointment at what had happened. The main issues were:

1) There is no race pack pick-up option for out-of-town runners on race weekend. You need to either pick up your pack in advance or have someone collect it for you. Makes it difficult to enter if you are from out of town and don't know anybody in Singapore.

2) The start/finish location is inaccessible. There is no public transport. The organizers put buses on from the nearest MRT station, but the service couldn't cope with the number of runners. Hundreds of runners missed the start of the race. Many people tried to take taxis, but the traffic meant again many people missed the race. To make matters worse, the only road leading to the start/finish was closed off for the race - literally hundreds of runners ran 3-5K just to get to the start line in time.

3) Contrary to what the organizers say, the race pack provided no detailed information on how to get to the start. Road closures meant that the route most taxi drivers knew was unavailable. Race information did not detail any alternatives. Many runners were stuck in cars and taxis looking for the start line when the race began.

So many people missed the start of the half marathon that the organizers were forced to do a second start an hour later. However, the course for those runners was cut short as roads started to reopen.
All in all, an awful event - one to avoid unless there is improvement. Hopefully the organizers will move the start location somewhere more sensible.