Traditions

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Clear the bridge

Spectators at the finish are regularly confused when the PA system crackles and asks them to clear the bridge.

Confused, because there is no bridge along the finishing straight.

 

As you enter Rhodes, the building on your left immediately before you cross the bridge over the Tintern Spruit was the old Community Centre. In the early years the Run started and finished across the road from the caravan park, outside that Community Centre, and the finish line was on the Barkly East side of the bridge.

 

During the day spectators would dawdle over and linger on the bridge, getting in the way of the finishers and confusing the officials. Clear the bridge was often heard as Brian did his best to stop runners having to run through the spruit to get round the crowd. One finisher hopped along the stones on the side wall of the bridge to avoid them, and of course Waltzing Dave Wright did his signature flourish when he finished.

 

Spectators still bumble in front of the runners along the finish straight. So even though there is no longer a bridge to cross, what better way to keep the tradition alive, and alert the crowd, than to warn them to keep off the bridge.

Sedgwick's Old Brown

The bottle of Sedgwick’s Old Brown at the end of the day. What would the Rhodes be without the traditional bottle every finisher receives on crossing the line? A tradition that went on to spark the creation of the Rhodes Heater, equal parts Sedgwick’s Old Brown and Captain Morgan. Runners are also kept warm while waiting to register with a shot or two of OBs.

Cracking the ice on the Bell River

Polar Bears

Tradition is that you have to crack the ice with your toe at the water’s edge to qualify as a true Rhodes Polar Bear.

 

After the first run in 1989 the suggestion of starting a Rhodes Polar Bear Club was floated, it being a watery subject after all. The club was launched the following year. Those who have completed the run, and brave supporters, have the option of a late night dip in the Bell River in their birthday suits wearing nothing but a silly grin.

The pealing of the church bells

To make sure nobody misses the start, the hamlet is woken on race morning by the pealing of the church bells. This tradition is one of the Race Director’s responsibilities on race day.

Champions present the finisher medals

Our winners return to the finish line and present finisher medals to every runner who completes the run during those sometimes frenetic last sixty minutes.

The cut off blanket

Runners have four and a half hours to reach the Mavis Bank and Border Road check point. In 2009, with the onset of the third decade of the run, a new tradition started, the embroidered cut off blanket.

 

The first runner to arrive at the top check point after the four and a half hour cut off receives a specially embroidered dated fleece blanket. Not an award anyone aims to receive, but a suitably appropriate memento. In years when the race could not go up Mavis Bank, the blanket has gone to the last participant over the finish line.

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