Wings for Life World Run Is an Event Like No Other Kevin Fylan - Red Bull
go to original May 3, 2014

About the Race - Wings for Life World Run (WingsForLifeWorldRun)

Live broadcast - Watch it here

At 10am UTC on Sunday, May 4, tens of thousands of runners from 164 nations will compete on 34 different tracks in 32 countries with one simple idea in mind – to run for those who can’t.

1. What’s the big idea? The Wings for Life World Run is all about raising funds for research projects dedicated to finding a cure for spinal cord injury. One hundred percent of the money coming from entry fees and donations will go directly to funding research.

2. Can I still get involved? Online registration has closed, but you can still sign up directly at some of the venues – please check your local race for details. And if you can’t take part yourself, you can follow the live feed at wingsforlifeworldrun.com, join in the conversation and make a donation.

3. When does the race start? It will start at 10am UTC around the world – across 13 different time zones, from sunrise to sunset, in spring and autumn, through the night and day.

4. When does it end? That’s the beauty of this unique format – we just don’t know. The Catcher Cars will start following the runners 30 minutes into the race, and some of them, of course, will be caught pretty quickly. But the marathon runners, the ultra-runners, the athletes for whom 100km is just a brisk pick-me-up before lunch, they will be out for several hours before the cars catch up. When exactly? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

5. What was that about a Catcher Car? It’s the unique element of this race, a brand-new way of bring each individual athlete’s run to a close without a finish line. For full details, check out this story.

6. Where is it taking place? For the full list of locations, and to get a good handle on the global scale of this race, check out our map page.

The list of countries is made up of: the United States (actually three races – in Colorado, Florida and California), Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, Georgia, India, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

7. Is there a prize for winning? The winning men and women will be rewarded with a unique round-the-world trip, taking in Salzburg, Istanbul, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Sydney, Fiji, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, and featuring a series of money-can’t-buy experiences.

8. Who are the favourites? It’s probably wisest to expect the unexpected, but there are certainly a few athletes to watch, including Takahiro Sunada, a Japanese ultra-marathon runner who holds the world record for 100km (6:13:33) and three-time ultramarathon world champion Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy. Sunada will be running in the race in Austria while Calcaterra will be running in Italy. There are plenty more too, including the UK’s Robbie Britton and American endurance runners Karl Meltzer and Frankie Ruiz.

9. Have I heard of anyone else running? Across the globe, 245 Wings for Life World Run ambassadors have helped in terms of publicising the event and getting people to run. Among the athletes due to take part are former F1 drivers Mark Webber (Australia) and David Coulthard (Great Britain), skier Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway), rugby legend Dan Carter (New Zealand) and windsurfing hero Robbie Naish (USA).

10. Where can I find out more? Dead simple: go to wingsforlifeworldrun.com to follow the livestream, get involved, and discover everything about the race. And when you tweet, don’t forget the hashtags #mygoal and #worldrun.

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