Running boom drives marathon registrations

IT is less than six months until the Ballarat Marathon returns, and event organisers are encouraging the community to register early.

The event, to be held Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 April, will include marathon, half-marathon, 10-kilometre, five kilometre and mile events.

Next year’s courses will be the same as the 2025 festival.

Event director Adam McNicol said it is important participants register as soon as possible, particularly for the longer events.

“The key thing is registrations for the marathon and half marathon are going really strongly and there is plenty of room in both events at the moment,” he said.

“But we’d encourage people if they want to do the longer distances next April, they definitely should be signing up pretty soon.”

It is expected that 12,500 people will take part in the running festival, an increase from 9500 last year.

Registrations for the full marathon, which is Australia’s fifth largest behind Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Canberra, are already 50 per cent full.

“We’re certainly riding the wave or the running boom,” McNicol said.

“We’re really trying to manage the growth in a responsible way.

“We want the event to grow but we want it to grow steadily.”

McNicol thanked the community for their support of the event and said the fun atmosphere is one of the reasons it’s so popular.

“We’re really trying to create an event that focuses on the runner experience, so they come and participate and go away feeling like they had a lot of fun,” he said.

“We’re really proud that the event has become such as showcase for our region.

“We can’t be in the conversation about being the biggest, but we think we can be the one where people come and they say ‘man, that was fun, it was well organised’.”

To register, visit ballaratmarathon.com.au.