Posted: July 5, 2005

Athletics: Jetty To Jetty Comes Of Age

This year marks the 20th running of the Jetty to Jetty Fun Run and has attracted a huge field with entrants from northern NSW, Brisbane, and Sunshine Coast as far north as Mackay and international visitors from Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The event is also heavily supported by local dignitaries and this year Redcliffe Mayor, Mr Allan Sutherland will get the 10km field underway at 8:00am on Sunday, 24 July from the Belvedere Hotel at Woody Point.

The event also doubles as Race 1 in the all new Queensland Run Series and the Queensland 10km Road Championships. The Series offers competitors fabulous prizes for series winners. Race 2 in the series will be the Noosa Half (including 10km and 5km events) on August 21 and wrapping up the series with Race 3, River Run on September 18.

Winner of the Queensland Half Marathon on 5 June Brian Livingstone has committed to running in all three of the Queensland Run Series events. Livingstone is currently undefeated in the Sanctuary Cove Series and finished in the top ten at last weekend’s Gold Coast Marathon.

Once again we will be kept informed and entertained by one of Australia’s best middle distance runners ever produced, Pat Carroll will commentate all events in the run series.

In 1986 the Moreton Bay Road Runners Club quickly picked up on the success of fun runs and organised their own - the Jetty to Jetty Fun Run. There were 120 entrants in this inaugural run, which started just north of the Redcliffe Jetty to Woody Point Jetty and return, hence the name of the event. The Apex Club and the Moreton Bay Road Runners combined resources to organise the event and as it has grown over the years and numbers increased the course has seen some changes, but 1999 saw a return to the original format.

The Jetty to Jetty Fun Run now stands alone as the longest running fun run in South East Queensland and boasts numbers in excess of 1600, a far cry from the first Jetty to Jetty. The Moreton Bay Road runners are very proud of this enormous achievement from their small club. The proceeds from the Jetty to Jetty Fun Run are now donated to the Endeavour Foundation who will play an active role with staff 'manning' all the drink stops and the gold coin baggage stop.

The event is heavily supported by the local community with all three Rotary Clubs on the Peninsula, Kippa-Ring, Redcliffe and Redcliffe Sunrise together with Endeavour providing course marshals and drink stop staff on the day.

Local events such as the Jetty to Jetty Fun Run develop a sense of ownership for the local community and something which they can take pride in. The fun run is a major draw card for the area creating a positive economic impact for the region.

This year’s event will be held on Sunday, 24 July, starting at the Belvedere Hotel, Woody Point, Redcliffe at 8:00am. You can choose from a 3km run/walk, 5km or 10km distance or the Junior Relay (3 x 500m) with primary and secondary schools categories. It’s a great day out with loads of random prizes to be given away.

The fun continues after the event with the post race entertainment provided by the Belvedere Hotel including; live entertainment, mini kids carnival, jet ski demonstration and much more.

To further enhance this wonderful running event into a unique experience organisers have added a Health and Fitness Expo to the agenda and will feature a huge range of products on display

Entry forms are available from the following locations:

Belvedere Hotel – Woody Point, Ray White - Margate, Leading Edge Sports Store - Clontarf, Zest Health Club - Strathpine, Intraining – Milton and Cycleogical Bike Shop – West End. For online entries www.usmevents.com.au or phone (07) 5449 0711.

Any person wishing to join the Moreton Bay Road Runners for a run, log onto the website for run locations: www.mbrr.8k.com.

Web site: www.usmevents.com.au.