It's also the day the Clifford Craig Foundation hold its annual Run and Walk for Your Heart event.

More than 350 people pulled themselves out of bed on a wet and stormy Sunday morning to help the health of their heart.

The foundation's chief executive Peter Milne said the event was about trying to encourage the community to take part in some form of regular exercise.

"We always run Run and Walk for Your Heart on the first day of daylight saving. We try to say to people this is your trigger point to have a healthy summer and try and avoid heart disease," he said.

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Statistics for heart disease are huge across the state, Mr Milne said.

"The statistics for heart disease are woeful in Australia and in Northern Tasmania it's even worse."

One Australian dies every 12 minutes from heart disease, and one in six people are affected.

"What we say to people here is 'come along and set the example for other people in the community', and that's what it's all about," he said.

Clifford Craig Foundation event coordinator Rebecca Biggelaar said the run's entry numbers were up on previous years, despite the wet weather.

"I think there is a lot more awareness out there now. A lot of people who participate are families and teams and just get around the cause," she said.

The event aims to educate the next generation, with about 50 children taking part in a 800-metre fun-run before the main event.

"We're just trying to really get the next generation into moving and thinking about their heart health," she said.

"People are listening. They're changing their lifestyles and they're getting moving. We're trying to create awareness but there is still a fair bit of work to do."

In the main event, there were eight entrants aged under 16 who completed the five-kilometre course in less than 25 minutes.

Sam Clifford crossed the line first with a time of 14.42 minutes. Rebecca Zuj was the first female home, doing it in just 21.39 minutes.

Participants were offered free health checks, and a healthy kick-start grab-and-go station filled with free fruit, water and health bars.

Ms Biggelaar said even thought the rain positively dampened things a little, organisers were thrilled.

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