This ‘run concierge’ takes hotel guests on running tours around Marina Bay
Besides being the official hotel for elite runners at the Stanchart Marathon, The Westin Singapore is big on inclusivity and supporting people with disabilities
[SINGAPORE] Loh Guo Pei is a former national sprinter and hurdler who has represented Singapore at numerous international competitions including the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
These days, the 34-year-old is a running coach, and he also spends a lot of time with his photography business where he is busy shooting one event after another.
Just a fortnight ago, Loh took on a new role as The Westin Singapore’s new “run concierge”, which sees him taking guests on early morning runs around the Marina Bay area and elsewhere, up to thrice a week.
“I can give some ideas about where to run. Many guests are first-time visitors to Singapore so I can show them different routes and some landmarks to look out for. I see myself as a tour guide of sorts,” says Loh.
Even with such a packed schedule, Loh also finds time to take part in running events. This year alone, he went for two marathons in Australia – at the Gold Coast in July, and in Sydney a month later.
“I started doing marathons three years ago. I was a sprinter, and I’m more used to doing 400-metre distances. A full marathon is more than a hundred times longer than that. I hope to go under three hours for a marathon and that’s my goal for the next two years,” he said.
A push for inclusivity
For the third year in a row, The Westin Singapore is the official elite hotel at this year’s Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM), which takes place this Saturday (Dec 6) and Sunday. About 30 of the 80-plus elite runners who are in town are staying at the hotel, which is located at Asia Square Tower 2.
The Westin Singapore is also supporting persons with disabilities (PWDs) and this year the hotel has provided 20 SCSM slots for people from the Singapore Disability Sports Council to take part in the various race categories – the 5 km, 10 km, half-marathon or marathon.
James Walkden, general manager of The Westin Singapore who’s been in this role since the end of 2022, said the support for inclusivity aligned neatly with the hotel’s overall vision in supporting Singapore’s largest marathon.
“We thought to ourselves, how can we make the marathon more meaningful? It’s all well and good saying we are the official hotel that welcomes these international runners, but the PWD angle was something that we felt was a great opportunity to show what we could do,” he said.
Helping to spread the word and the message of hope are The Westin Singapore’s ambassadors Gregory Burns and Natalie Dau. Burns is an American former Paralympian and endurance athlete, while Dau is an ultra-marathoner who completed a 1,000 km charity run in the Philippines in May this year.
On its part, Standard Chartered has provided 200 complimentary race slots to those with special needs from organisations such as Special Olympics Singapore, with the bank’s employees coming on board as volunteers to support them as running partners.
Soh Rui Yong goes for a double
Standard Chartered is now in its 24th year as the title sponsor of the SCSM, which is the only World Athletics Gold Label race in South-east Asia.
More than 55,000 runners will be taking part this weekend, including over 13,000 from more than 80 countries. Registrations have closed, and every category is sold out, said Santoz Kumar, Ironman Group’s general manager for Singapore.
This is the 10th year that Ironman is organising the SCSM and he described the effort as “a tribute to a decade of passion, innovation and perseverance”.
“From experimenting with new courses and race formats to creating a stage where homegrown talent competes alongside international athletes, we have consistently pushed boundaries to grow not just an event, but an entire ecosystem of talent and possibility,” he said.
Thousands of participants turned up at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre on Thursday and Friday to pick up their race packs, including five-time national marathon champion Soh Rui Yong.
The 34-year-old is aiming to set a new record this weekend by completing the Double-Up challenge of the half-marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. He is also scheduled to take part in the 10,000-metre race at the SEA Games in Thailand this month, pending medical clearance from his doctors.
He added that he is starting to look at an ultra-marathon career with races like the Two Oceans (56 km) and Comrades Marathon (88 km) a possibility.
“The Double Up challenge is a great way for me to get my feet wet and see if ultras might be for me. Combining this challenge with the SEA Games gives me a good opportunity to test myself on 73.3 km over 10 days. If I want to race 88 km in one go, I need to first learn how to race this triple challenge well – particularly balancing exertion, nutrition, hydration and recovery,” he said.
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