The Wings for Life World Run is now less than 36 hours away. The 13th edition starts at exactly 11:00 UTC on Sunday, 10 May, with hundreds of thousands of runners and wheelchair athletes setting off simultaneously across more than 165 countries to chase the same virtual Catcher Car. Race control in Salzburg confirmed on Friday afternoon that all 80 App Run Events have hit their volunteer thresholds, that broadcast handover between Red Bull TV, ServusTV and DAZN has been signed off, and that the only outstanding logistic on the dashboard is the closing of online registrations at 10:00 UTC on race morning.
The flagship event in Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace is again the centrepiece of the global broadcast. Organisers confirmed earlier this week that the Schonbrunn course, which loops out from the palace forecourt and back through the gardens, has sold out at its 7,500-runner cap and will host the global elite field, including a number of athletes who will set the pace the rest of the world chases on television. The Catcher Car at Schonbrunn will be driven by Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser, who is making her Wings for Life debut in the role and was in the city for a final dry run on Friday morning.
For runners taking part on the Wings for Life World Run app, the format is unchanged. Every athlete starts at 11:00 UTC, the virtual Catcher Car launches 30 minutes later at 14 km/h, and the car's speed steadily increases as the day progresses until every participant has been caught. Race director Colin Jackson reiterated on Friday that the worldwide field will be held to a single global start window, regardless of timezone, and warned that runners in late-evening starts — chiefly in East Asia and Australia — should pay particular attention to local hydration and lighting plans for the back half of their effort.
The fundraising arc is the other story going into Sunday's race. Wings for Life Foundation has raised more than 33 million euros for spinal cord injury research over the event's 12 prior editions, and the foundation said earlier this week that registrations and matched donations through the Red Bull network had pushed the running 2026 total above last year's pace by a clear margin. One hundred per cent of every entry fee and donation continues to flow to spinal cord injury research, a model that distinguishes the race from almost every other charity-run event of comparable scale.
The broadcast schedule for Sunday is the most extensive in the event's history. ServusTV anchors central European coverage from Schonbrunn from 12:30 CEST, Red Bull TV carries a four-language global feed from 12:45 CEST, and DAZN takes its first worldwide free-to-air feed of the race from 13:00 CEST through to the closing of the final flagship course in Munich. App-runners can follow their personal Catcher Car distance live in the Wings for Life World Run app, with leaderboard cuts updated every five minutes. Registration closes at 10:00 UTC on race morning — one hour before the global gun.