If you’re used to inching across the Tasman Bridge in bumper-to-bumper traffic, this weekend, you can run it instead.
The 17th edition of the St Lukes Run The Bridge is on this Sunday morning and it gives runners the chance to pound the pavement across the iconic bridge without a single car in sight.
It features four events from a 1km children’s dash to a full 10km race and it’s the only public occasion each year where lanes on the bridge are closed to traffic.
The bridge, which is 1,396 metres long and up there with Tasmania’s busiest pieces of infrastructure, becomes the centrepiece of both the 5km and 10km courses.
Race director Richard Welsh said the event continues to grow and reach different demographics.
“We’ve found a shift off the back of COVID in the trends of people that are entering events like this,” he told Pulse.
“The average person used to be a 41-year-old male, now it’s like a 25-year-old female.”
He said seeing people form healthy habits was a huge goal for race organisers and was excited to see run clubs were “popping up left, right and centre”.
“[After Covid] we saw run clubs pop up, and not just the 10 that are in southern Tasmania, there’s 900 in Australia that have registered now, and there’s plenty more out there that we don’t know of as well.”
“There’s so many good run clubs in Hobart, and we encourage people to go to them, or to Parkrun on Saturday, but then set events like this, and all the other great fun runs that are in Tasmania, as a bigger challenge long term.”
He expects over 4,500 runners on Sunday, with last year’s event growing by 38 percent from the previous year.
“And it’s Valentine’s weekend, I’m sure there’ll be some extra relationships formed this weekend,” he said.
The 10km race starts from Blundstone Arena while the 5km begins at Montagu Bay Primary School.
A 5km walk and 1km children’s dash round out the offerings and end in Salamanca.
Entries are open until Saturday afternoon at hobartrunthebridge.com.au.
