When you find yourself with a public holiday and you can't travel the next sensible thing is to spend the day running across the length of Singapore… right?

With no races on the horizon, I was looking for a suitable challenge. Seeing people cycling around the whole of Singapore, I was tempted to run it, but preparing your body for a multi-day attempt to cover 200kms is no joke and the last thing I wanted was an injury, so when I saw the Coast-to-Coast route that seemed like the perfect challenge. The best thing about having OCR friends is that you can casually suggest running 50km on a public holiday and you'll find people crazy enough to join you so a few weeks ago, I signed my friends Emily and Liane up, locked in a date and started to make a plan!

When I looked more into the official coast to coast route it turned out it didn't start on the west coast at all. It actually starts about 12kms inland with the start being at Jurong Lake. I decided that if we were going to claim we'd run from one coast to the other then we needed to do it properly and luckily I had a friend who had done the full route a few weeks before. I downloaded the map onto my Garmin using the “Courses” section on navigation and set to packing my bag. We weren't sure how much we'd be running as none of us had been specifically preparing for an Ultra but we figured we could combine walking and running and get it done and spend a day exploring Singapore in the process.

Getting our packs set up the night before!

We set our alarms for an early start, left the house at 4.30 am and jumped in a cab to the start point. Because of limitations due to COVID, we weren’t sure if we would be able to get to the Tuas Checkpoint so we got dropped at Marina Bistro - as close to the coast as I could find. It was right next to Tuas Link MRT so you could also get the MRT there if you wanted to wait till it was running. We knew it was going to get hot so we wanted to get as many cooler hours in as possible (something that we were very grateful for at midday).

Knowing we were in for a long day we decided to ease into it so we started the first 2km at a walk. I had downloaded the route onto Garmin Connect as a GPX file from my friend’s Strava and that did a pretty good job at taking us the right way. We also used the Coast to Coast App (See here: https://coast-to-coast.nparks.gov.sg/) to cross-reference if we weren’t sure and this was really helpful. The first hour was… pretty ugly… it was dark and we spent the first 10km running through industrial estates. It was worth it for us to be able to say we had gone from coast to coast but actually, if you were just after a nice walk I can see why the official starting point is a little further inland. Eventually, we joined the river and things got much prettier from there!

All smiles at the start. 5am and ready to roll!

Everyone is different when it comes to fuelling for an Ultra and you really need to find what works for you. I am a big fan of Tailwind (Click for more info: Tailwind UK, Tailwind SG) and as I can’t stomach food or gels, this is the only form of calories I take on during any long-distance runs). The key is to start from the beginning so I made sure I had an alert on my Garmin which reminded me to drink every 15mins and I attempted to get through 1bottle with 2 scoops every hour- this seems to work pretty well for me!

These are the signs you will see along the whole route.

The route was easy to follow and there are a number of signs along the way - basically, whenever you need to turn as well as 10 checkpoints you can look out for en route. We kept an eye out for the checkpoints but some of them required crossing the road or going slightly off course (I am still not sure what checkpoint 10 is up to being so far off route!) so we did not make a conscious effort to locate them all, we became focused on keeping moving instead.

Body-wise, we held up pretty well. This was Liane’s first long-distance run, having only done 12km prior (nothing like jumping in at the deep end haha) and she found she had some hip pain that worsened around 3okm so she jumped on the MRT at Botanics and headed home to then come back and meet us for the end. In terms of where you go for the route, there is a combination of really pretty parts and you certainly see some of the highlights of Singapore but you tend to find that you skirt around them rather than going through them. For example, we ran on a very long stretch of road all the way up to MacRitchie but then you head right past it without going in (although we did take a detour for a wee and a bottle refill!). The route is entirety road running (Let’s be honest, Singapore isn’t really known for its trails) but I would say that you see enough sights along the way to keep you interested. The good thing about the route is the number of 7/11s, hawkers, and petrol stations you go past (this starts from around 15kms, if you start from right on the coast). This gave us multiple opportunities to fill up our water and to purchase the odd sugary drink and I think this worked really well in keeping us moving and also aided the recovery process, I was back to feeling normal within 4 days which is better than my normal ultra recovery.

However, it is worth noting that the last 10kms did not have any of these ‘aid stations’ that we saw, so make sure you stock up around the 40km mark. The last 10km section takes you through Punggol and over onto Coney Island. This was my favourite part of the run in terms of views and it’s so nice to run along the river, but with 10km to go at the hottest part of the day, with no water, it was a struggle and I did start to get a bit grumpy. But, we muscled through and got it done and it was such a relief to cross over onto Coney Island. We were then rewarded with a dip in the ocean, on the other side of Singapore and sat in the water it seemed pretty crazy to think that a few hours before we’d been on the totally opposite side.

A little dip at the end on Coney Island.

My watch had some navigational issues as I was using the UltraTrac GPS setting and it seems to have lost some distance, the route was in fact 50km from start to finish. As you can see it's incredibly flat and it's a good ultra for a beginner and a good option while travel isn't running from Singapore.

Our Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/3890844731

All in all, it made for a pretty decent challenge for a bank holiday Monday! The sense of achievement sitting in the sea at the end of it and the pizza that then followed made it an excellent day out and if you’re in Singapore and looking for a challenge in a time without races then get this one on your bucket list!

Gear:
Instinct Trail Pack, Knockaround Sunglasses, Garmin, Kydra Shorts, Spartan Craft Sports Bra, Red Dot “The Mountains Are Calling” vest (this seemed apt as our route couldn't have been flatter! 😂)
Shoes: Scotts Supertrac RC (I think these are perfect for road / trail and they were comfy the whole run, the only time I don’t rate them is for really thick mud as it gets caught in the lugs but other than that i’d really recommend these as an all round shoe).
Nutrition: Tailwind Colorado Cola - 10 scoops total (I normally work with 2 scoops per hour but I got a little behind with my timings).
1 x HoneyStinger Energy Chews. (These are really good!)
1 x Clif Chocolate Cherry Gel.

My vest, trail pack, shoes, sunglasses and tailwind were all from Red Dot Running - if you’re in Singapore and you’re in need of gear or advice I would highly recommend you check them out! They’re a brilliant team with a wealth of experience and some amazing stock!

Drop me a comment if you've got any questions or if you've taken on the route!