Verification Standard
Last updated 2026-09-30
What this standard is
This is the standard every Reverie Route attempt is judged against. It is published before verification opens and applies to everyone equally, including Reverie.
Reverie Route is unsanctioned. No body permits it, no one supervises it, and nobody is responsible for a runner's safety but the runner. What follows is not permission to run. It is the basis on which a completion is admitted to the Archive.
Records are judged against the version of this standard in force on the day of the attempt.
1. Declaring an attempt
1.1 Every attempt must be declared before it starts. An undeclared attempt cannot be verified, whatever the evidence shows. There are no exceptions.
1.2 Declaration is free and is not an application. Reverie does not approve, refuse or supervise attempts.
1.3 A declaration must be made no fewer than 7 and no more than 30 days before the declared start.
1.3a A declaration names a date and a start hour, on the hour, in Singapore time. The attempt must begin within that hour: declare 20:00 and the attempt must start between 20:00:00 and 20:59:59. Start outside that window, early or late, and it is not a declared attempt and cannot be verified.
1.3b The start is the first recorded point of the activity file, the same point the clock is measured from. The hour is not a target to hit exactly. It is a window wide enough to absorb a late crew, a last-minute problem or a slow start, and narrow enough that a declaration is a real commitment to a time rather than a vague intention.
1.4 Seven days before the declared start, Reverie will contact the runner to confirm. A declaration that is not confirmed lapses, and an attempt run on a lapsed declaration cannot be verified.
1.5 Plans change. A runner may withdraw at any time before the start, at no cost and with no consequence. There is no postponing a declared attempt: a new date and hour is a new declaration, made under 1.3 with the full notice period.
1.6 Runners must be 18 or older on the day of the attempt.
1.7 Reverie may contact a declared runner at any point during their attempt and ask for a photograph of where they are, to be sent within 15 minutes. This is used rarely and at random. Failing to respond is not an automatic failure, but it is recorded and weighed with everything else.
2. The route
2.1 The official GPX is free and is the definition of the route. The start point is fixed and the direction is anti-clockwise.
2.2 You may leave the route. You may never shorten it. Following the line is what is judged, not the number on a watch.
2.3 Where the route is physically obstructed, closed or unsafe on the day, the runner may deviate and must rejoin at the nearest practical point. A deviation that removes distance or bypasses part of the line is a shortcut and fails verification. Construction, closures and gate hours are conditions of the day, not grounds for adjustment.
2.4 Recorded distance must be at least 157 km. There is no upper limit. This is a backstop against gross shortcutting, not a target.
2.5 The route has no mandatory checkpoints. The GPX is the route and the activity file is what shows you followed it. Suggested pitstops in the Attempt Guide are advice, not control points, and reaching or skipping them affects nothing.
2.6 There is one route and one GPX file. If the route is ever forced to change, because a section closes permanently or becomes impassable, the new route is published as a new version with its own file, and records already in the Archive stand against the version they were run on. Earlier versions are never edited or withdrawn.
3. The clock
3.1 Elapsed time is wall clock time from the first recorded point to the last, taken from the activity file, not from the runner's report and not from moving time.
3.2 The clock never stops. Sleep, meals, medical attention and waiting all count.
3.3 Auto-pause must be switched off. If it was on, elapsed time is still calculated from timestamps.
3.4 The cutoff is 30 hours. A completion over 30:00:00 cannot be admitted to the Archive. It may be verified as a DNF and listed in the Attempt Registry, recording the distance reached at 30:00:00.
4. The recording
4.1 One activity file covering the whole attempt, first step to last. One file, not several joined together.
4.2 If the recording ends, the attempt ends. A dead battery, a crashed watch or a stopped activity is the runner's responsibility, not a circumstance Reverie accommodates. Charging a device while it keeps recording is fine.
4.2a Gaps inside a single file are normal. Tunnels, underpasses, buildings and satellite loss all leave holes in a track, and they do not end an attempt. The clock does not pause for them, because elapsed time is measured from the first point to the last. Distance across a gap is counted as the straight line between the two points, never more. A gap fails verification only where the straight line across it removes distance from the route, which is to say where it could conceal a shortcut.
4.3 Both of these must be submitted: a publicly viewable activity link, and the original file as your watch platform exports it, in its native format — FIT from Garmin or Coros, the original export from any other platform. A GPX written by hand is a text file; a native device file carries the device, firmware and sensor data that make an attempt checkable.
4.4 Heart rate, cadence and barometric elevation are not required. A file without them is harder to corroborate and may be scrutinised more closely, or refused if nothing else supports it.
4.5 The file must be the runner's own, recorded during the declared attempt, from a device carried for the whole distance.
5. Photographs
5.1 Required: a photograph at the start, a photograph at the finish, and at least two taken during the attempt, spread across the route. The runner's face must be visible in the start and finish photographs.
5.2 Photographs must be from the attempt itself and must not be edited beyond cropping and basic exposure.
5.3 Send the original image files, straight from the camera or phone, not screenshots and not copies forwarded through a messaging app. Messaging apps strip the time, date and camera information out of a photograph, which removes most of what makes it evidence. Stripped photographs are not an automatic failure, but they carry less weight and may mean Reverie asks for more.
6. What Reverie checks
6.1 That the attempt was declared and confirmed, and that it started inside the declared hour.
6.2 That the line was followed and never shortened, and that every deviation rejoins at the nearest practical point.
6.3 That elapsed wall clock time is within 30 hours, calculated from the file.
6.4 That the recording is continuous, was uploaded within a plausible window of the finish, and is internally consistent: pace, elevation, sampling, device and timestamps.
6.5 That the photographs match the attempt, the runner and the places they claim to show.
6.6 That the person submitting is the person who ran.
7. Outcomes
7.1 Verified — Completed. Admitted to the Archive with a permanent Archive Number, in order of admission. Archive Numbers are the order in which completions were admitted, not finishing order and not speed.
7.2 Verified — DNF. The attempt was genuine but ended before the perimeter was completed, or exceeded 30 hours. It may be listed in the Attempt Registry, which carries no Archive Number.
7.3 Not verified. The evidence does not meet this standard. The runner receives a written reason citing the clause that was not met.
7.4 A runner who completes the route more than once keeps a single record and Archive Number. Their fastest verified time is shown.
7.5 The Course Record is held by the fastest verified elapsed time in the Archive. An equal time does not take it.
8. Fee and pre-check
8.1 Verification costs SGD 50. It pays for review time, which is spent whatever the outcome, so it is not refundable once review has begun, including where an attempt is not verified. If you withdraw your submission before review begins, you are refunded in full.
8.2 A free pre-check is available before paying. Send the activity link and photographs and Reverie will say whether the submission is likely to meet this standard.
8.3 The official GPX is free and always will be.
9. Appeals
9.1 A runner may appeal a decision once, within 30 days, and only with evidence not already submitted.
9.2 An appeal is reviewed by Reverie together with one independent reviewer. The decision is final and is recorded.
9.3 Appeals are free.
10. Withdrawal of a record
10.1 A record may be withdrawn if it was obtained by fraud or material misrepresentation.
10.2 The runner is notified privately and has 14 days to respond. The decision is made by Reverie together with one independent reviewer.
10.3 A withdrawn record stays visible, marked as withdrawn with the date and reason. Its Archive Number is retired permanently and never reused. Records are not deleted quietly.
10.4 A runner may ask for their name to be removed from the Archive at any time. The entry and its Archive Number remain, without the name.
11. Public and private
11.1 Public on the record: your full name, Archive Number, elapsed time, attempt date, nationality, occupation, years running, longest previous distance, story answers, photographs supplied for publication, and your own note if you give one.
11.1a The Archive publishes real names. It does not accept nicknames, handles, initials or invented names, because a record of who has run the perimeter is worth nothing if the names on it are not real. Declaring an attempt means accepting that your name is published permanently if you are verified. If that is not something you want, do not declare.
11.2 Never public: your email address, phone number and other contact details, order references, the original activity file, evidence photographs not offered for publication, and Reverie's review notes.
11.3 Publication in the Archive is permanent.
12. Changes
12.1 This standard may be revised. Each version is dated and the previous version is kept.
12.2 An attempt is judged against the version in force on the day it was run.
Version 1.0. No previous versions.