Melbourne Marathon

The Melbourne Marathon has been held every year from 1978. The 42.195 km run over the traditional marathon distance is the main race within the annual Melbourne Marathon Festival. The race celebrated its 30th birthday in 2007 with a new course which featured the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) as both the starting point and finishing point. A total of 3328 competitors completed the 2008 race. Another 17,000 people participated in Half Marathon (21.1 km), 10 km and 5.5 km events.

The 2013 running of the marathon saw a record number of 6852 finishers, and race records set for both men and women. There were 6054 finishers in 2014, 30% of them female. In 1978 approximately 4% of the 1947 finishers were female. The marathon has been owned by IMG since 2006.

The Medibank Melbourne Marathon is the largest marathon in Australia, we strive to deliver a world class event that will accommodate the increasing demand. In 2013 we have made further improvements to the marathon course for participant safety and to reduce course crowding:

• Increased road Width- the use of the centre of St Kilda Rd from Toorak Rd to Southbank Blvd exclusively for marathon runners until 10.00 am


• Added runner lanes – in St Kilda Rd where the half marathon and marathon merge we have separate running lanes with exclusive lanes for marathon only


• Separated the half marathon course from marathon –the last 8 km of the marathon course is a dedicated  marathon only course – runners do merge as they enter the MCG