Running 42km Without Legs: How Wheelchair Marathon Redefines 'Athlete'

On the course of Brisbane's annual charity run Bridge to Brisbane, the Underground Opera ensemble began singing O Fortuna. Carl Orff's composition — the one that appears in film battle scenes — changed something in the runners passing by. Some sped up, some punched the air, some laughed and sprinted.

A single piece of classical music turned an ordinary road race into an epic.

How Music Changes Running Speed

This is not just the feeling of running faster. Research by Costas Karageorghis, sports psychologist at Brunel University London, shows that exercising in sync with music can improve endurance performance by 15% while reducing perceived exertion. Tempos of 120 to 140 beats per minute work best for running.

O Fortuna has a slower, more sweeping rhythm. But it has another kind of power: emotional drive. The brain is not calculating cadence — it is telling you that you are doing something epic. Sometimes, believing you are doing something great matters more than actually running faster.

Bridge to Brisbane: More Than a Race

Bridge to Brisbane is one of Australia's largest charity runs, with over 25,000 participants every year. The route crosses Brisbane's main bridges for approximately 10 kilometres. Participants include elite runners, recreational runners, wheelchair users, and parents pushing prams.

Running continuously since 1998, it has raised millions of dollars for charities. It is not a competition. It is a collective act of movement that everyone can join. In this context, the opera performance alongside the course is not entertainment — it is a tribute to every runner who passes.

What You Don't Know: Underground Opera

The Underground Opera that sang alongside the course is not a traditional opera house ensemble. They specialise in performing in places where opera is not supposed to appear: streets, pubs, sports stadiums, road race courses. Their philosophy is that opera should not belong only to those who can afford tickets.

Opera singers in formal attire standing alongside a road race course, performing O Fortuna at full volume. Classical music and running shoes. Opera hall acoustics and roadside dust. Solemnity and sweat. That contrast itself is a form of art.

Redefining the Athlete

The most moving image at Bridge to Brisbane is not the fastest person crossing the finish line. It is the person who takes two hours to walk the full course. The person pushing a wheelchair. The person using crutches. The 70-year-old and the 5-year-old. When O Fortuna rises as they pass, the melody is not synchronising with movement — it is synchronising with perseverance.

An athlete is not the person who runs fastest. It is anyone willing to start. And every person who starts deserves a piece of opera.

The next time you feel what you are doing is not grand enough, imagine O Fortuna playing in the background. You may find that you have been running an epic all along.