Ballarat Marathon is Australia’s newest marathon with it being run for the first time in 2024 on the 28th of April.
Ballarat has a rich history in long distance running, most notably as the birthplace of Steve Moneghetti who won gold in the Marathon at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. The Ballarat Marathon is backed by Moneghetti who is the race director for the event.
In this article we’ll be doing a deep dive and analysis of the marathon course. The event also consists of Mile, 5km, 10km and Half Marathon races.
Marathon Course Overview
The course consists of two laps of 21.1km enitrely on bitumen roads through Ballarat Central and around Lake Wendouree.
The marathon starts and finishes in the heart of Ballarat on the city’s main street, Sturt Street. This is a popular area for locals, surrounded by shops and retails stores, there is sure to be a crowd in this area.
Sturt Street, Ballarat. Photo Source: visitballarat.com.au
Off the line, marathoners head west down Sturt Street and at approximately 3km turn left into Victoria Park. The section through Victoria Park is 3km long with a number of turns through the park. After looping around Victoria Park, runners come back on to Sturt Street for another 2km and turn around at the 8km point.
Marathoners will come back east down Sturt street for around 4km before turning left to run a lap around Lake Wendouree. Lake Wendouree is very well known to distance runners, made famous by Moneghetti who would often see how fast he could run around the lake. Not surprisingly Mona holds the lap record, running 16:10 for the almost 6km distance in 1992. Athletics Victoria club athletes also know Lake Wendouree well for the 15km road race which is run around the lake annually. Expect this 6km lap of the lake to be the most picturesque section of the course.
Lake Wendouree, Ballarat. Photo Source: visitballarat.com.au
After the lap of the lake, runners will turn left back on to Sturt Street, the main street of Ballarat. Expect a lot of crowd support from 18km through this popular section of Ballarat consisting of restaurants and shops. Runners will turn around at about 20km and come back past the start/finish line for their second lap.
Ballarat Marathon Official Course Map. Image Source: ballaratmarathon.com.au
Course Elevation
Having run around Lake Wendouree many times in the past I know this section of the course is flat and fast. The official course map has total elevation gain at 136m. This elevation gain is very low over 42.2km. It appears that the main hill you will encounter is near the start line on Sturt street, based on the elevation profile.
Comparison to some other popular marathons in Australia:
- Sydney Marathon: 365m elevation gain
- Gold Coast Marathon: 62m elevation gain
I mapped out the Ballarat course in Garmin Connect. Albeit this gave me a much higher elevation gain figure than the official with 294m of elevation gain. However I also compared this to Melbourne Marathon in Garmin Connect which is a reasonably flat and fast course, and Melbourne is around 252m of total elevation gain.
In summary I’m not sure how accurate the Garmin Connect elevation is and would be more likely to trust the official course map, however even if the Garmin Connect figure is right, it’s still quite flat for a marathon.
Ballarat Marathon course in Garmin Connect
Melbourne Marathon Garmin Connect
Other Course Details
The course is certified by AIMS and and measured to World Athletics standards.
It’s a fully closed road course with traffic management in place and aid stations. The course doesn’t include footpaths or gravel sections.
There will be pacers spaced at 10 minute finishing time intervals starting at 2:40 up to 6 hours.
Weather
The weather in Ballarat is typically colder than Melbourne, and makes for good running conditions.
Weather averages throughout April are 18° high / 7° low, and May 14° high / 6° low. You will be very unlucky to have a hot day. However what you could encounter is cold, wet or windy conditions so that is one thing to be wary of.
Getting to Ballarat
The drive to Ballarat is approximately 1 hour 30 mins to 2 hours drive or train from Melbourne. While not such a bad journey, if you are running the marathon I would highly recommend staying in Ballarat at least the night before the marathon. There are plenty of accommodation options close to the start and finish line. Staying close be makes the marathon much less stressful being able to wake up, have your nutrition and a short walk or drive to the start line.
Conclusion
I’m really excited for the first Ballarat Marathon and hope it becomes a regular event on the Australian Marathon calendar. The potentially fast course and cool weather could make this one of the best marathons in the country!
About the author : Ben Mudie
Ben is the head coach at Beam Running. Ben first took up running in 2013 and it changed his life. He now wants to share that with others.
Thanks Ben, was honestly everything I thought it would be. Was a lot of mental game from early on. You’re advice really helped. I really stuck to the plan and the last 10km I just took it 1km at a time and knew I had enough left in the tank to keep going. It was such an overwhelming experience something I’ve never had felt in my life. Again thank you for everything, I know in myself I would never have achieved what I did without your help and training.
Thanks to an amazing running program by my coach Ben Mudie!!!
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK @ben_mudie for helping me with my training plan for @austrunningfest half mara… I did it! PB!
Having my runs set out each week is probably my favourite thing. It’s very nice not having to think about it, allows me to laser focus each session and get the most out of it