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The Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival takes place on 10-11 October 2026, with events finishing in the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Festival will be held over two days.
The festival features events over five distances, from 3km to the Marathon.
The 2019 edition of the event saw the largest ever number of finishers in an Australian marathon at the time, with 7,037 runners completing the 42.195km course. This was surpassed in 2023 by the Sydney Marathon.
Cover image by Chris Phutully. Used under CC BY 2.0 license.
Event History
The Melbourne Marathon was first held in 1978.
A variety of different courses have been used for the Melbourne Marathon throughout its history, with the most common course beginning at Frankston and concluded at either Albert Park or near the Arts Centre on St Kilda Road.
The event has been owned by IMG since 2006. The current course has been used since 2007, starting on Brunton Avenue near the MCG and finishing with a lap of the ground.
Course Description
All events commence on Brunton Avenue and are out and back courses in a southerly direction, finishing within the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The predominantly flat marathon course goes through some of the most scenic areas of Melbourne. It skirts the Botanic Gardens and Albert Park Lake with several kilometres on the road parallel to the beaches of Port Phillip Bay.
Marathon course
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- Distance Instructions
1 Review on “Melbourne Marathon Festival”
Melbourne is an incredible city to run a marathon. The course is mostly flat and runs past some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, giving much needed variety. The only challenge is the long out-and-back stretch along St Kilda Road… it feels never-ending. But all is forgiven when you finish inside the legendary MCG!