Bridge to Brisbane

The Bridge to Brisbane turns 30 in 2026, and the milestone edition sold out five days early with more than 40,000 entries across its two distances. It is Queensland's largest fun run, and the pitch has not changed since 1997: you get to run over a stretch of motorway you would otherwise only ever see through a windscreen. The 2026 event is on Sunday 13 September.

The two races

The La Roche-Posay 10km starts at the southern end of the Gateway Bridge at Murarrie and climbs straight onto it, roughly 60 metres of elevation inside the first kilometre and a half. After that it is a long descent and a mostly flat run along Kingsford Smith Drive, with a second rise onto the Inner City Bypass around 8km and a final pinch up into the Showgrounds. The winning time sits either side of 30 minutes: Callum Davies won in 30:01 in 2025, one second clear of Australian Olympian Ryan Gregson, then broke the barrier with 29:15 in 2026.

The RBWH Foundation Blue Run 5km is the second distance, starting later and further along the course at Hercules Park in Hamilton before joining the same Kingsford Smith Drive run-in. It is close to flat apart from the ICB rise at 3km and the climb to the line. Both races finish at the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills.

Start times and zones

Everyone is allocated a coloured start zone based on the finish time nominated at entry, and the race number carries the zone colour. Timing is net, counted from when you cross the start line, and the organisers ask you to arrive an hour before your own start time rather than the first one.

The rule that catches people

Every participant has to be across the finish line by midday, whatever time their zone set off. A Pink Zone starter leaving at 7:30am has four and a half hours to cover 10km, and a Chaser pacer runs at the back of that zone on four-hour pace. Pacers are spread through the field from 40 minutes upwards, carrying flags and running to net time.

Race number collection

Numbers are collected at the John Reid Pavilion, corner of Gregory Terrace and Alexandria Street: Thursday 10 September 8am to 6:30pm, Friday 11 September 8am to 6pm, Saturday 12 September 8am to 2pm. There is no race-morning collection, which is the detail that catches people flying in on the Saturday night.

Getting there and getting home

The race number doubles as a free ticket on Brisbane City Council buses and Queensland Rail City Network trains on event day until 3pm. Ferries and the Airtrain are not included. Shuttle buses run to the 10km start at Metroplex between 4:30am and 6:45am from RBWH, Eight Mile Plains, Carindale, Stones Corner and Chermside, and to the 5km start between 7am and 9:30am from the same hubs; allow 45 minutes, plus about 900 metres of walking from the 10km drop-off to the start zones.

Roads from Murarrie through to Bowen Hills begin closing at 3am and are scheduled to reopen by 12:30pm, with the Gateway Bridge closed southbound. Transurban makes the Clem7 and AirportlinkM7 southbound tunnels toll-free between 5am and 9:30am. Afterwards, trains leave Exhibition Station beside the Finish Village every ten minutes until 12:30pm, and buses run from Gate 3 on Gregory Terrace through to City Hall.

On course

The entertainment is spread along the route rather than banked up at the finish: a band at the top of the bridge at 1.5km, a lion dance troupe at 4.4km, a misting station and cheerleaders at Brett's Wharf, and the one everyone talks about, the Underground Opera performing inside the Inner City Bypass tunnel at 8.1km. Three-time winner Cassie Fien rates the tunnel acoustics as the best thing about the course. There is also a timed 400m sector on the ICB with a prize for the fastest split.

Thirty years of it

The first race was run in August 1997 as the Bridge to Bay, about 5,000 people heading from the Gateway Bridge out to the bayside at Manly. Pat Carroll won the first three editions, and the yellow running figure in the event logo is an illustration of him crossing the line that year. He now calls the start. The finish shifted to New Farm Park, then to the Showgrounds in 2008, and from 2016 the course left the Gateway behind altogether for a city-bridges route out of Roma Street Parklands. The bridge is back, which makes the name work again.

Giving is built into the entry. Participants raised $1.1 million across more than 300 charities in 2025, and the 2026 event carries the same target, with 2026 delivered by Events Management Queensland for the first time.

Race-week logistics sourced from the official 2026 Transurban Bridge to Brisbane Event Guide. Last checked 9 September 2026.