SINCE 2019

SIX YEARS, ONE ROUTE

A small race with a stubborn habit, and a finish line that has not moved.

HOW IT STARTED

In 2019 the Harbor Food Bank was two weeks from closing. A handful of us who used its warehouse for storage put on a 5K to cover the rent for a quarter — forty-one people ran it, and we raised enough for five months.

We have run it every October since. The route has not changed, the entry fee has gone up by five dollars once, and the food bank has not come close to closing again.

It is organised by volunteers, underwritten by local sponsors, and produced each year by Ocho Creative, who donate the design, the website and the race-day signage. Nobody takes a fee.

The open road out to the lighthouse under a wide sky

THE ROUTE

Start on the green at Harbor Point Park, out along the harbour wall past the boatyard, around the lighthouse at the two-kilometre mark, and back the way you came.

The last three hundred metres run up onto the pier, which is the only rise on the course and the only place with a crowd two deep. It is a good place to have something left.

SIX YEARS OF IT

6
Races run
4,900
Runners all told
$312K
Raised since 2019
100%
To the food bank

WHO PUTS IT ON

RACE DAY CREW

All volunteers. Most of them run it too.

GW
Grace Whitfield
RACE DIRECTOR
Runs the food bank warehouse on Tuesdays and the start line in October.
TA
Tomás Arriaga
COURSE & SAFETY
Marshals, water stations, and the only person who enjoys a 5am road closure.
PR
Priya Raman
TEAMS & SPONSORS
Talks companies into sending thirty people instead of three.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

Is any of the entry fee kept back? +
No. Timing, medals, shirts, permits and the pancakes are covered by sponsors, so entries go to the food bank whole.
Who audits it? +
The food bank publishes its accounts annually and the race is a line in them. We publish the race total the week after, every year.
Can I give without running? +
Yes — and a lot of people do. Register as a virtual runner and simply do not run; the meals get funded either way.

COME AND RUN IT

Saturday 4 October, 8:00 AM, Harbor Point Park.