Marathon to put Geelong on display

RUNNERS will hit the pavements around Geelong next year as the region introduces its first public marathon.

The Geelong Running Festival will land on September 20, featuring a marathon, half marathon and a community 8km category.

Event organiser Lee Troop has spent the past seven years working on getting the festival off the ground and said the idea behind it was to showcase Geelong.

“With running booming at the moment, with all marathons around the world selling out, Geelong’s in a prime point in its inaugural event to make an impact.

“Geelong has a lot to offer, I think people in Geelong know that, and to be able to showcase that to people outside of Geelong, to interstate and then to also potentially international people is pretty exciting.

“We have a lot to be proud of and thankful of and it’s going to be exciting to show that to people when they come to Geelong next year.”

Troop said when designing the course, it was important to him that each distance would get the city experience and the Kardinia Park experience.

“The [marathon] course itself basically takes in the waterfront, North Geelong, the city centre, Kardinia Park, GMHBA Stadium, Eastern Park all the way through to Point Henry.”

Registrations for the event opened in late September, with entrants in the full marathon leading the way.

“We’ve got more marathon runners than half marathon runners at the moment, which is a little abnormal; normally it’s two to one.

“And we’ve already sold 20 per cent of our spots that we’ve allocated for the half marathon and marathon.”

Early bird pricing is still on offer for entrants at a heavily discounted rate before an increase on December 1.

To register and for more information, head to geelongrunningfestival.com.au

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