adidas transformed a go-kart track into Sydney's fastest run club showdown
Sydney's top run clubs swapped footpaths for a go-kart track
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LAST WEEK, a field of Sydney’s biggest running clubs traded their usual footpaths for a go-kart track when adidas transformed Hyperkart, in Moore Park’s Entertainment Quarter, into the venue for its Hype Relay. Ordinarily home to revheads and birthday parties, the venue made an unlikely relay track, its straights and hairpins swapping lap times for lactic acid. Partnered with The Sydney Run Club, the event pitted squads of four against each other around the course, run under neon lighting with plenty of noise from the sidelines. (Friendly competition, participants stressed, though, bragging rights were clearly on the line.)
Among the clubs vying for a place on the podium were Chinatown Run Club, Northern Race Club, Midnight Runners Sydney, Shuffle Sydney, Run Certified, Strava Sharks, Hills Run Club and Felons Manly, a lineup that speaks to how far running culture now reaches across the city’s suburbs and postcodes.
For adidas, the night doubled as ashowcase for the Adizero Evo SL,the brand’s speed-focused franchise, inspired by record-breaking Adizero technology and built for runners chasing personal bests. Even the catering got in on the theme, with a specially branded Adizero pasta on the menu (subtle, it was not).
The event has landed at the perfect time, catching a broader shift in Sydney’s booming running scene. According to online data, running club membership in Australia grew 59 per cent in 2024, with race entries climbing a further 5 per cent last year, much of it driven by younger runners drawn less by finish times than by the community that gathers around them. As marathon season approaches, including this weekend’s big race across Sydney, that community showed up in force, laced up, and raced go-karts on foot instead.
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