7,000 Runners Sign On For Chance To Traverse Skyway Bridge

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – In just five days of registration, the debut Skyway 10K run across the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge reached its capacity of 7,000 participants.

“That’s unbelievable,” said race spokesman James Judge. “Our race director, Norm Pingley, has organized 500 races around the world, and he said this level of participation is unprecedented.”

The Skyway 10k, Saluting Military Families, scheduled for March 4, will be the first running event across the Skyway Bridge since it opened in 1987.

“There was a run before the bridge opened to vehicular traffic but there hasn’t been an event since,” Judge said.

He attributes the overwhelming support to two factors.

“First, this event benefits such a great cause: military families,” he said. “Americans understand and appreciate the sacrifices undertaken by our military and their families waiting at home.”

Secondly, said Judge, this is the first time in the bridge’s 30-year history that it will be partially closed for a road race.

“People are really looking forward to the opportunity to run across the Skyway,” Judge said. “It’s going to be an amazing experience.”

On Sunday at the close of registration, Judge took a closer look at the participants and was surprised to find that the event attracted running enthusiasts from three countries and 40 states.

Furthermore, 10 percent of the participants are active-duty military, members of the reserves or military veterans, he discovered.

“We have representatives from all five branches of the military,” Judge said.

Thaddeus Foster, a board member of the Armed Forces Families Foundation, was thrilled to hear these totals.

“We are grateful and humbled by the tremendous outpouring of support and the level of interest in the inaugural Skyway 10k,” Foster said. “We’re looking forward to sharing this event with the community for years to come.”

The run will begin on Interstate 275 at the rest area just south of the bridge and end at the rest area on the morth side of the bridge, a total of 6.2 miles.

Participants will be bussed from Tropicana Field to the south end of the bridge and then picked up by buses on the north end of the bridge to return to Tropicana Field for the awards ceremony. Organizers are currently trying to work out a way for family members and friends who wish to see their loved ones cross the finish line by viewing monitors from a spectating area at Tropicana Field.

Only the northbound lanes of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge are scheduled to be closed at 4 a.m. and reopen by 10 a.m.

All proceeds from the event will go to support the Armed Forces Families Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that gives 100 percent of the funds it raises back to projects to help military families.

To date, the Armed Forces Families Foundation has raised and given back more than $2 million to benefit military families. Recent projects include:

· $35,933.84 in funding for the creation of a new USO center and family care facility at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown

· $31,978 for the construction of an event pavilion at the Asheville, North Carolina veterans hospital

· $14,994 to purchase 25 new HP ProBook computers and needed materials for Fort Gordon’s Freedom Park School in Georgia

· $46,000 to install a new playground, accessible to more than 300 families stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

Anyone interested in volunteering or sponsoring can do so by visiting skyway10k.com or emailing info@skyway10k.com.

Photo by Linda Hersey, Patch.com