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 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, 10 km and 5.5 km events.
The 2019 running of the marathon saw an Australian record of 7037 finishers, 1880 of whom were female. In 1978 approximately 4% of the 1947 finishers were female.
The marathon has been owned by IMG since 2006.

The course

A variety of different courses have been used for the Melbourne Marathon although the most common course has begun at Frankston and concluded at either Albert Park or at The Arts Centre on St. Kilda Rd. It is normally run on the second Sunday in October.
Since 2007 the event has started near the MCG and finished with a lap of the 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. The other events share parts of the course but staggered starts ease congestion.

Past winners

Key:
EditionYearMen's winnerTime Women's winnerTime
1st19782:21:042:53:38
2nd19792:26:443:12:35
3rd19802:17:372:46:16
4th19812:19:032:42:12
5th19822:11:082:37:57
6th19832:13:152:37:56
7th19842:15:312:43:40
8th19852:12:352:44:56
9th19862:17:212:36:06
10th19872:14:162:44:18
11th19882:18:142:47:38
12th19892:18:132:49:18
13th19902:20:352:39:00
14th19912:17:022:39:57
15th19922:16:042:33:02
16th19932:15:072:44:22
17th19942:19:022:47:37
18th19952:17:192:38:50
19th19962:22:402:41:53
20th19972:15:492:48:32
21st19982:12:482:37:56
22nd19992:25:042:33:27
23rd20002:25:532:49:22
24th20012:23:582:39:44
25th20022:22:282:47:08
26th20032:14:002:49:01
27th20042:26:512:54:01
28th20052:23:302:50:35
29th20062:23:432:53:06
30th20072:19:162:40:34
31st20082:17:432:38:16
32nd20092:17:322:34:08
33rd20102:11:042:32:20
34th20112:11:122:35:12
35th20122:12:352:36:29
36th20132:10:472:26:05
37th20142:11:302:31:05
38th20152:16:002:27:45
39th20162:20:532:34:27
40th20172:14:082:29:27
41st20182:15:132:25:19
42nd20192:16:312:35:34

Qualification

Spartans are runners who have completed 10 or more Melbourne Marathons and are recognised today by their distinctive green, gold, red, maroon or navy running singlets. Every Spartan has their own personalised race number. The singlet is worn with pride by all Spartans as a sign of their dedication to marathon running and the Melbourne Marathon in particular. Club records reflect almost 1400 males and 150 females who have qualified as Spartans. Most come from Victoria but there are many from other states with at least two from Japan.

Legends and Hall of Fame members

Spartan Legends are a select group of runners who have completed every Melbourne Marathon since the beginning. After the 42nd running there were five remaining Spartan Legends. Runners who have completed at least 30 marathons are eligible for the Melbourne Marathon Hall of Fame. The runners marked with an asterisk in the following list completed the first 30 marathons.
NameCompleted runs
Peter Battrick *37
Frank Biviano *40
John Dobson42
David Foskey42
Neville Gardner *41
Bruce Hargreaves42
Manual Karageorgiou * 39
Peter Ryan *37
Wayne Thompson42
Roger Weinstein42
Ian Campbell40
Bryan Flegg41
Chas Harcoan41
Antony Martin37
Dennis Nish41
Richard Tann37
Ken Bowes40
Laurie Glover 34
Jim Hopkins40
Conor McNeice34
John Burt35
John Dean *33
Brian Gawne32
Grayson Summers39
Carlo Iovenitti37
Steven Lightowler37
Jack Gubbins *30
Keith Hunter30
Brian Walsh34
Clarke Whitehand30
Shirley Young *30
Hugh Creamer31
Russell Harris33
Con Zanetidis33
Stephen Barker32
John Kaparelis32
Brett Thiele31
Jim Yatomi-Clarke33
Andy Moore33
Peter Moore31
Duncan Bartley31

Wheelchair Spartans

The Melbourne Marathon has always included wheelchair entrants. Two have attained Spartan status: Ian Gainey who has completed 29 races and Dean Callow who has completed 12.