The largest and most established race in this region, Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2011 happened on 4 Dec 2011. Elliott Danker tells us about his experience being part of the marathon as an emcee at the main stage at the Padang.

Organised by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA), Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore has been held annually since 2002 and is a key highlight in Singapore's calendar of established international running events.

I took these photos really early in the morning at 7am using the Toy Camera Effect mode on my Canon IXUS, the mode darkens the edges of the image to give it a vignette effect.

Now what were you doing at 7am on Sunday 4th December? My guess is taking it easy in bed on a weekend. However over at the Padang, many participants and supporters turned up for the 9th installment of The Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore.

This year, some 65,000 runners participated in the largest marathon in Singapore. It is, of course, one of our marquee sports events! With each passing year, the Standard Chartered Marathon has achieved record participation numbers. I was doing a bit of research and realised that it started with just 6,000 runners in 2002 and then jumped to 24,000 in 2005 and 50,000 in 2010.

Stage activities began at 8am when I was called into action. There were 6 other emcees who started hosting their segments as early as 5am at various starting points for the different categories like Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10km run and even a kids dash. My job was to handle the prize presentation ceremony, which was being broadcasted on cable TV networks across the region.

No prizes for guessing that The Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore remained an all-Kenyan affair, with Kenyans taking both the men's and women's Open category titles. Men's Open winner Charles Kanyao breasted the tape in 2hr 14min 33sec to take home the winner's cheque of US$50,000.

As he came backstage to wait for his turn to receive his winners’ medal, he looked very pleased with his result and he still seemed so full of energy. I couldn’t believe it, that after running 42km and he still appeared so fresh.

After stage activities came to a close, the sound guys stood up and applauded my co-host, Tingjun and me as if we had run the 42km. It was a nice feeling too as we returned the applause to them. Hosting the event wasn’t easy especially with all the information on winners coming in just minutes before we had to go on stage, then there was also the coordinating with the TV crew who had to make sure the main studio was aware and ready to cross over to the stage for the prize giving segment.

So yes, in a way after all that action on stage, it did feel like I had run the marathon and as I headed home to get some rest, I saw scenes of people congratulating each other on completing the marathon, comrades smiling and taking photos with each other and some tired runners getting encouragement from passers-by.

Since Canon was the Official Imaging Sponsor, I decided to capture a few scenes of the participants on my way out. I like this picture in particular which I took using the colour accent mode. The IXUS picked out yellow and retained it in the photo while taking the rest in black and white. To me it shows a picture of people doing their best to cross the finish line yet at the same time order is maintained with the yellow barricades making sure the participants don’t just stop and crowd at the finish line but move further up in an orderly fashion.

While doing that I remembered how two years ago I was supposed to run this marathon but pulled out a few days before the event due to a serious medical condition. I felt distraught especially because I had trained and was really looking forward to running. A close friend of mine who was supposed to run the marathon with me dedicated segments of the run to his family and close friends. He texted me when he completed it and said he dedicated a km to me and wished me well on my recovery.

That pretty much prompted me to take this photo in monochrome mode because I related what these two chaps had done to a memory I had.

We talked a lot about how this year’s tagline – Run For A Reason was a really appropriate one, as you don’t just have to run for the sake of running. There were people who were dedicating their run to their newborn kid, their newlywed and some even ran for charity.

It’s amazing how sport can bring people together and instill hope to one another. I’ve recovered now and soon I’ll be running marathons again.

Another IXUS Experience brought to you by the Canon IXUS Style Council