Gold Coast Half Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Gold Coast Half Marathon, sponsored as the China Airlines Half Marathon, is the Saturday opener of the Gold Coast Marathon weekend in Queensland, Australia. It starts at 6:15am in the Broadwater Parklands precinct at Southport and is held in early July, in the middle of the Australian winter. The Gold Coast Marathon began in 1979 and the first event already included a half marathon, with 144 starters. The half marathon course is a return journey: it runs from Southport to Paradise Point, passing through Labrador and Runaway Bay, with views over the Broadwater at sunrise, and it finishes beside the Broadwater in Southport. The weekend also includes the full marathon on Sunday, a 10 km, 5 km, wheelchair races and a junior 2 km dash, and runners can combine the Saturday half with the Sunday marathon in the 63.3 km Gold Coast Double. The cut-off for the half marathon is 3 hours 20 minutes, and the minimum age is 15. About 11,000 runners started the half marathon in 2026, when Shumpei Tomita of Japan set the course record of 1:00:52 and Isobel Batt-Doyle of Australia won the women's race in 1:07:29. Entries for the 2027 festival open in early December 2026, and the 2026 half marathon sold out.