April 7 – June 1 2020 Lockdown! Circuit Breaker
As with most countries around the world, in order to slow the spread of Covid-19 Singapore implemented its own CB measures which effectively made it not possible for our towerrunning community to train together. Fortunately, we did not sit still. Many of us continued to train by ourselves, in our home gyms, on our yoga mats, on our bikes, or in our running shoes outside solo.
And we watched the sporting world postpone or cancel events worldwide. Towerrunning was not immune as all races were also postponed or cancelled.
It was during this period that we began thinking about forming the Towerrunning Association of Singapore. After some initial brainstorming sessions, ideas began to take shape. Soon thoughts turned to plans, plans turned to action, and with the help of 13 dedicated towerrunners (our founding members), countless Zoom calls, and endless revisions, we submitted our application. From crisis to opportunity, stairs on!

February 1, 2020 Tembusu Vertical Marathon
Leading up to the event, Covid-19 had just started to gain international attention, and Singapore had its first cases in mid January. There was some concern that the race would be cancelled but fortunately the race was given the all clear so it was game on! A few of our members joined this very unusual vertical race. What makes it so unusual is the course design which looks like something out of the board game “chutes and ladders”. Set across several buildings at Tembusu College the course takes you up and down 3 buildings and across campus. The challenge for many towerrunners is running down the stairs, for most towerrunners are not accustomed to going down stairs (training down is a recipe for injury, most take the lift down) . Up, down, across, up, down, across, up, down, you get the picture:

The results:

Congratulations to Kai Peng who placed first in the male NUS division, and to Serene Choeng and Michele for placing 2nd and 3rd in a tight race in female open! Congrats also to Mr. Kent (Chan Sian 3rd place male open) who came down from Towerrunning Malaysia and hung out with some of our group for dinner. And as usual, thank you organizers on your successful 5th year running this event, we can only imagine the logistics of getting everything straight!


2019 in review
Taking a look back in 2019, it was an eventful year for our new Towerrunning group.
Although the Singapore Towerrunning Association was not officially formed until 2020, the group’s foundations were set in 2019 when a bunch of us, led by Richard Sirrs, decided to form an informal training group that would train on stairs once or twice a week.
This little band of towerrunners grew into a sizable group and pretty soon started doing races and more trainings together.
Let’s take a look back on the notable events of the year:
Christmas climb and party, 2019
What better way to celebrate Christmas than a grueling stair climb followed by a nice Christmas feast!? A group of die-hards ran up a 47 floor tower 3 times, then feasted on some Thai food at Charlie’s…. hmmmm apparently everyone was so hungry they forgot to take any pictures.

December 6, 2019 BBQ at Rich’s

November 10 2019 TM Tower Run 2019 at Menara TM, Malaysia
A group of Towerrunners hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur to take part in the Yasana TM Tower Run, a 54FL, 200m race sanctioned by both the Malaysia Towerrunning Association and the World Towerrunning Association.
Congratulations to Mark Bud, who placed 10th in the men’s overall, and to Seow Cher, who placed first in the women’s veteran category. Aside from the well organized race, one of the nice touches from the event were the high quality pictures shots taken from inside the stairwell during race time, courtesy of the organizers.




October 2019 Group Dinner

Sept 29, 2019 Vertical Challenge Bendemeer Light

Our towerrunning group took part in this local race where a good time was had by all. Our group swept the women’s results 1-2-3, and took 1st and 3rd in the men’s divisions. Way to go Towerrunners!
Although the race definitely had a grassroots feel to it, there was plenty of warmth in the organizers and community that came out to support the event.

Serena Cheong taking 1st (center), 2nd Seow Cher (right), and 3rd Lim Mui Yee (left)

3rd place Eddie Tan (back right)


and the community at large participating in the race
July 27, 2019 South Beach Tower race

This was a well organized towerrunning race with a special twist: run around one block (about 800m) before climbing 34 floors to the top of South Beach Tower. The challenge for our runners was one of strategy- how fast should you do the run portion? Go too hard and burn out on the stairs, but go too slow and you may be left behind… fortunately our towerrunners did just fine.
In a dramatic finish, in the men’s category Rich Sirrs placed second only seconds behind the overall winner Hillary Kipkering, the elite Kenyan Marathon runner. Mark Bud also did well, placing third overall. Well done guys! In the women’s category… [ ]



