Last week entries to the Gold Coast Marathon opened for what promises to be a great weekend of racing. The Gold Coast event, to be held on the 5th & 6th July, includes a 2km & 4km Junior Dash, 5.7km challenge, 10km run, 21.1km half marathon & 42.2km full marathon, as well as a wheelchair 15km & wheelchair marathon.
Gold Coast is always a popular choice for it’s flat fast course & the prospect of fast times. Now it seems the race is officially Australia’s best with the IAAF awarding it the Gold Label Road race. Gold Coast becomes the first Australian marathon to be awarded the Gold Label and it’s certainly something to be proud of. Organisers have worked hard to meet the criteria including attracting world-class entrants from around the world. Read more from the Gold Coast marathon website here. http://goldcoastmarathon.com.au/2014/01/22/gold-coast-airport-marathon-achieves-highest-international-accolade/
Running, at the participation level, has been booming in Australia in recent years with record numbers of people entering local fun runs and marathons. There’s so much variety in races now from road races to trail running, colour runs to zombie chases, and mud runs to night runs that seem more like a disco. The range is great and no doubt attracting a wider group of runners. Let’s hope the trend continues!
What’s your favourite event? It’s never an easy question and never one that everyone will agree on but I’m really glad to see so many new trail events being held. Australia has so much fantastic running trails waiting to be explored it is great to get new trail runners started with well run events.
As for marathons, what is the best Australian marathon? The officials will rightly say the Gold Coast Marathon. I don’t agree although it is a great race. While 
I haven’t run all the major city marathons in Australia (yet), my favourite so far has been Canberra or Brisbane. It is hard to beat running over the harbour bridge in the Sydney marathon but the other smaller major cities have a charm & friendliness that flows through to the marathon.
This year we’re off to run the Adelaide marathon (in Aug) & next year to Melbourne (which so many people rave about) so my list may well change soon. After that I’ll have run all the Australian big city events so it might be time to tackle a few regional races such as the Great Ocean rd marathon, Hunter Valley, Newcastle or Sunshine Coast events
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