Experience A Race Like No Other In St. Paul’s Skyways

ST. PAUL (WJON News) -- A new race this weekend will get you out of the cold and let you check out some great views. The Skyway 5K takes place in St. Paul on Saturday and brings the first of its kind race to Minnesota. Participants will race in temperature controlled comfort of the skyway system from Union Depot to the Treasure Island Center and back.

Running is not normally allowed in the Skyway System

Event Organizer Jess Fast says normally running is prohibited in the skyway system, so it took some doing to put everything together:

"So it's kind of funny even having to work with some building that we are not running through at all but own like an easement part of a bridge or a door so that's been kind of wild but also kind of fun for event organizers or people who like puzzles even, it's been really, it's been a very giant puzzle to put together but it's been really fun."

She says in addition to permission from the City of St. Paul, they had to get approval from 16 different buildings or businesses for the sections of skyway they are using.

Racers are coming from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York, and Vermont.

Fast says there are a lot of challenges to being able to hold the race in the skyway, like how to get the doors to stay open:

"So they're all automatic doors except for one. One of them is a manual door that we can prop open with a door stop, but the rest are automatic doors, and so we have asked all the buildings to please leave those locked in the open position during the race hours."

Fast says the race is limited to 1,000 people because of safety concerns with all the corners, stairs, and tight turns, and right now they have over 700 people registered. The Skyway 5K takes place at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and costs $46.00 to take part.

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READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT