Conquering the Fort: Fort Canning Run 2020

Spanning across the entire festive month from 5 Dec 2020 to 3 Jan 2021, the Fort Canning Run aims to challenge runners on Singapore's iconic landmark.

Fresh from completing Grit Games 2020, I thrust myself into my final event of the year - the Fort Canning Run!

It was an event I had very little knowledge of prior to this year, although I did know of its existence. Game for a challenge as I have been for much of 2020, I registered myself to run on Tuesday after a quick familiarisation run the week before.

While I am no stranger to running on slopes, tackling Mount Faber and the Southern Ridges with regularity, I had only ran once at Fort Canning previously, way back in 2010 with the Singapore Cricket Club's National Football League team as part of our pre-season training - doing intervals.

With a 7.92km running route littered with stairs and steep slopes aplenty, combined with twists, turns, and U-turns; the Fort Canning Run turned out to be a very worthy challenge not just physically but also in testing one's memory.

Game for a challenge

With a 7.92km running route littered with stairs and steep slopes aplenty, the Fort Canning Run turned out to be a worthy challenge both physically and mentally.

With my body still aching from Grit Games, I decided to turn up a half hour earlier to get in a more thorough set of dynamic warm-ups as I had found the route to be pretty challenging the week before, even though the distance itself wasn't an issue.

Conquering the unknown, conquering the Fort

The run itself was a mixed bag of emotions for me, and I struggled in the second half after the U-turn back from Clark Quay, with my pace dropping significantly as tired legs and fatigue set in.

It didn't help that there were more uphills and stairs in the second half of the route either. But having covered half marathon distances with regularity over the past few months, I wasn't going to let a bit of discomfort get in the way of me completing my first Fort Canning Run.

You can imagine my surprise when I crossed the Fort Gate under 41 minutes, at a pace of 5:07 min/km, A very pleasant surprise for me indeed!

And with that I wrapped up my final running and fitness event of 2020. I have been pretty satisfied with achieving my running and fitness goals that I set for myself this year, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic and us having to resort to virtual runs.

Taking everything into account, I am grateful for the Singapore running and fitness community for pushing on and keeping the flame of passion for Singapore sports alive. It has undoubtedly helped me to push myself to go further.

If you are interested in signing up for the Fort Canning Run, you can still do so at EventBrite here.

The fastest 40 male and female runners will be invited to compete on 17 Jan 2021 at Fort Gate for an ultimate showdown!