This year’s Hello Kitty Run Singapore was held at The Promontory at Marina Bay on the 15th of July 2018. The last time the iconic Hello Kitty Run took place in Singapore was back in December 2015, and now they are back with a new theme, Fruity Rush. It’s my first-ever theme running event and I sure do feel excited about it!
Race Entry Pack Collection
The Hello Kitty race pack collection was held at United Square Shopping Mall from 7 – 8 of July 2018, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.. In the Hello Kitty carrier, it consisted of a race ID tag, Hello Kitty pouch, Hello Kitty running T-shirt, and a few vouchers from the various sponsors and partners. Despite the long queue, the overall procedure to get the race pack was considered fast and efficient as they had sufficient manpower to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
Instead of going straight to the counter, my friend and I had to scan the barcode on our confirmation slip/NRIC to get our race pack. When our turn came, they take a look at our sizes on the slip, get our running t-shirt, and then hand us the rest of the things in the carrier.
Pre-Race
It wasn’t a good start on a Sunday morning as it was raining. The organiser texted us and told us that it was drizzling at The Promontory and that they are monitoring the situation. Not long after my friend and I reach at 8 a.m., as that is when the Hello Kitty Fruit Carnival Opens, they texted us again to inform us that the event will continue as scheduled.
Reaching at 8 a.m., my friend and I went to explore the booths there but there is only one thing about the carnival that we were disappointed about, which was the carnival venue. We felt that the carnival venue could have been placed at a better venue or implement a wooden flooring on top of the grass patch, as it was muddy due to the rain and also there were a lot of holes on the ground.
After exploring, the both of us decided to go to the start pen to begin our race which the first wave starts at 8.30 a.m., and to our surprise, a whole lot of people have already start queueing. There were a total of five waves and each of the intervals is 10 minutes but we do not know which wave are we in, so we felt anxious.
The weather didn’t help us at all, we felt hot standing amongst the other runners, and some of the other runners already felt quite annoyed because they have been standing for quite awhile but the queue didn’t seem to move. After a while, we were flagged off at 8.50 a.m., which meant that we were part of the third wave.
5km, Ready, Set, Go!
Before we were set to flag off, all of us get to meet with the main person of this event, which is Hello Kitty! Hello Kitty was the one who sounds the siren and all of us started running. Running for about 1km and we already encountered with the first pit stop which is the Durian Zone. The first pit stop was more for people to take a photo at the durian balloon.
After running past the Durian Zone, we ran following the route towards the next pit stop, which is the Lemon Zone. When we reach at the Lemon Zone, there were drinks provided there and the pit stop was filled with people taking photos.
One thing that the both of us felt could have been a little bit better was to put on signages so runners will know how many kilometres have they achieved, and how many more to go. Though it’s only 5km, I’m sure there are people like me and my friend who wishes to know what is the distance.
Continuing running past the Lemon Zone, the both of us kept on running to head towards the next pit stop, which is the Strawberry Zone! It’s the last pit stop of the 5km race, and it’s the cutest pit stop because it’s Strawberry (it’s just my personal preference). At the Strawberry Zone, it is also another pit stop where the runners can get a drink either plain water or Pokka strawberry, or have a photo session at the zone.
Post-Race
We crossed the finish line at around 9.30 a.m., I felt quite satisfied though there were some things that I felt could have been better but here’s to my first theme race! Crossing the finish line, we received a Hello Kitty finisher medal and proceeded on following the queue to get our refreshments, which include a Pokka drink, an apple, and a fruit popsicle from Juicies.
After receiving our refreshments, we went to the Hello Kitty board to take photos before exploring the booths even more. As we took photos and explore the booths, without us realising, the live band performance has already started.
Overall, the event was fairly well organised with room for improvement. Looking forward to the next Hello Kitty Run event and hopefully, it’ll be a much better event compared to this year, with distance indication and bag deposit implemented.
Event Overview
- Signages could have been implemented for runners to know what is the distance that they have completed.
- It’ll be a great for those who wants to run if there is a place for bag deposit.
- Hydration points were well-managed.
How was your Hello Kitty Run experience? Were there things that you wish could have been better?
