by Jared Heng

Iconic landmarks of SAFRA Singapore Bay Run and Army Half Marathon

Father-and-child pairs at a recent media briefing (from left to right) Lee Chuin Yih Paul (33 years old) and son, Ryan John Lee (2 years old); and Md Shariff Abdullah (42 years old) and daughter, Nur Athirah Binti Md Shariff (11 years old), drawing on their bibs

One of Singapore’s largest running events, the upcoming SAFRA Singapore Bay Run and Army Half Marathon this coming Sunday is set to raise the fun factor.

This year’s new run category, the ‘Dads For Life 800m Father and Child Challenge’, will involve father-and-child pairs running side by side along a short 800-metre route beginning from Esplanade Bridge and ending at the Padang. They will each hold on to one end of a clapper while running together to symbolise the father-and-child bonding that the activity seeks to promote.

To make the event more memorable for participants, organiser SAFRA will attempt to create a new record in the Singapore Book of Records for the ‘Largest Father and Child Race’.

Father-and-child pairs can also look forward to a set of unique race bibs and medals for participation specially designed in pairs for this category. For instance, children will have to draw an image of their fathers on the race bib and vice versa. All these add to the element of fun and bonding, SAFRA said.

More than 600 father-and-child pairs have registered for the new run category, beating the target of 300 announced in June.

To up the fun, the SAFRA Singapore Bay Run and Army Half Marathon running man icon will also come to life on the event day to interact with participants and cheer runners on. Some of these “icons” will be on stilts, while others will be at Cheer Posts at Marina Boulevard and in mobile buses along the running routes.

Father-and-child pairs with the event mascots, race bibs and clappers

The other three categories of the event this year are the 21-kilometre half marathon, 10-kilometre run and 5-kilometre fun run. Participants of the last two categories will also have the opportunity to run along Marina Bay Promenade and enjoy the spectacular view of Marina Bay, SAFRA said.

This year’s event is expected to register a total turnout of about 70,000, similar to that last year.

SAFRA also noted an increase in the number of public registrants, who will join full-time national servicemen for this year’s event. More people have also registered for the 10-kilometre run and 5-kilometre fun run categories.