Record figure likely for run

A record number of participants is likely to compete in the annual South Western Times Surf to Surf Fun Run this Sunday, on the back of a sharp increase in early applications.

Organisers are expecting as many as 400 people to have entered by the time online and mail registrations close at 5pm today, up by almost double on 2009.

The City of Bunbury Surf Life Saving Club was also anticipating a strong contingent of locals to put their names forward at its Back Beach headquarters this Saturday between 10am and 4pm, the final chance for people to enter the event.

Fun run chairwoman Claire Smith said she was confident that this year the event would be the biggest ever, surpassing the 606 entries received in 2009 and the record of 700 set in 2008.

"There’s a lot of serious events out there," she said.

"What we are trying to promote is having fun. I know the words ‘fun’ and ‘run’ don’t often go well together, but that’s what we’re looking for.

"We want to get families and corporates involved and push the fun side of it."

Smith said many people felt intimidated by bigger fitness events around the region, and the South Western Times Surf to Surf catered for a more social demographic of individual participants, families or corporate teams.

"It doesn’t take up all weekend and you don’t have to train for years to do it," she said.

"You can walk, you can run, you can jog, whatever. That’s the angle we take because a lot of people feel scared to join those bigger events because they are quite intimidating."

The City of Bunbury Surf Life Saving Club uses money raised from the event to buy equipment to help train new lifesavers.

The club—which also provides water safety at events around the region including the Anaconda Adventure Race, the Busselton Jetty Swim and the Bunbury Classic Triathlon—estimates the cost of training one lifesaver to be more than $1500.

"The money we raise from it goes towards lifesaving equipment, which is used a lot of the time to train people," Smith said.

"If we can get more equipment on the beach for training, and for lifesaving, the easier it is for us to do our community work as lifesavers."