Runners Tribe caught up with Matt Fox, past 800m runner who recently commenced working at the events management company who run one of the fastest growing marathon event series in the world, the Sundown Marathon series. Matt has been living in Singapore over the last year and 3 months and has watched the running scene emerge.
RT: What brought you to Singapore?
Matt Fox: Initially I was offered the role within the Flight Centre Travel Group to start the Active Travel brand in South East Asia. The brand has existed in Australia for some 5 years and the aim was to latch onto the emerging running trend in Asia. I enjoyed working in the role and succeeded in growing it to a team of 4 with strong business, but over time took more interest in the events space and how the partnerships, sponsorships and overall marketing worked. Adrian Mok, the genius behind the Sundown Marathon series offered me a suitable role!
RT: Whatโs life like in Singapore? Is it difficult to run in the heat? Is it really expensive?
Matt Fox: Singapore has itโs proโs and conโs. Itโs super safe and easy to get around. Food is cheap and quickโฆ the thought of cooking my own meal and washing dishes is sadly now a difficult one! Running is challenging in the heat, but it depends on what youโre used to, I think. I wouldnโt say iโve fully adapted but Iโm getting there. I lived in Finland for 3.5 years prior to living in Singapore and learnt to love running in 0 degrees so itโs been challenging to adapt.
Singaporeโs cost of living depends entirely on the lifestyle you want to live. There are 3 things far more expensive in Singapore than anywhere else Iโve lived and they are rent, cars and alcohol. If you want to live in the city centre in a luxury apartment, own a car and drink a lot, your expenses will be upwards of $8000 a month. But you can easily live on under $3000 comfortably with a decent place 5km out of the city, using the amazing public transport and avoiding too much alcohol!
RT: You recently started working at Hivelocity, the event organiser of the marathon in Singapore called the Sundown Marathon. Tell us more about that.
[bctt tweet=”The Sundown Marathon is one of Asiaโs fastest growing events.” username=”runnerstribe”]Matt Fox: The event in May this year had just shy of 30,000 people participate, so in comparison itโs about the same size as the Gold Coast Marathon now and growing. Iโm involved with the management of sponsorships and partnerships with HiVelocityโs events but I am mainly focused on the new events launching in the coming years, of which include the Hoi An Marathon as well as an event in Taiwan and Hong Kong that arenโt yet 100% confirmed.
But for example right now Iโm pitching Strava to be a partner of ours.. The specifics I wonโt bore anyone with!
The Sundown Marathon in Singapore (www.sundownmarathon.com) have itโs 10th anniversary in 2017 and itโs set to be a cracker! The event is very vibrant and really appeals to the people not only wanting to run, but to experience Singaporeโs true culture too. Itโs almost like a festival! I strongly recommend foreigners looking for a good reason to visit Singapore to base their trip around this event next year in late March.
Donโt be shy of the heat, you can always run the 10km!
At the same time, Iโm working on a couple of other startups of different types.
RT: What about the other events youโre helping launch?
Matt Fox: Iโm driving the Hoi An Marathon and essentially making that my own little project with Adrian and the rest of the teamโs assistance. The event will be the week before the Sundown Marathon Singapore and weโve already had some great interest in participations and sponsors. Hoi An is such an awesome location to hold an event, being easily accessible from Da Nang international airport. Itโs a cute little cultural town on the coast, not too busy to hold an event through the townโs centre. Iโm looking forward to the challenges ahead with building this event!
For those interested in the Hoi An Marathon experience, do send me an email at mattfox@hivelocity.com.sg and I can send you the information as soon as weโre live.
RT: Youโre currently living remotely while working on this, right?
Matt Fox: Yes, Iโm currently in Tokyo writing this. I decided in July that I wanted to try working remotely for a while and travelling at the same time. I got to travel a lot in my role at Flight Centre Active Travel and I learnt that whenever I did travel, I worked very productively, came up with great ideas and was in general, happier. So I wanted to give it a go for a while.. Whatโs the worst that can happen? I think 95% of business can be done remotely / online now, with the likes of cheap unlimited wifi gadgets, Facebook Messenger and video calling, emailing etc. Itโs only so rarely I actually have to be anywhere and in that case, I travel there or have Adrian or someone else in the team attend the meeting for me and I stay online. I think itโs something more people should try. Itโs not all rosey though, there are certainly challenges in living this way but itโs all in how you respond to things. I just spent 10 days in Sapporo where 99.9% of the population speak less english than I speak Japanese. And thatโs not much!