Gold Coast Marathon

Course & Elevation

The ASICS Gold Coast Marathon is a road marathon on Queensland's Gold Coast, held on a Sunday in early July, in the Australian winter, as the main race of a two-day running festival. The weekend also includes a half marathon, a 10 km, a 5 km and a wheelchair marathon, and more than 43,000 people took part in 2026. The marathon starts at 6:15 am at the Broadwater Parklands on Marine Parade in Southport, which is also the finish. It is run as out-and-back legs along the coast and the Broadwater: the route passes The Spit and Main Beach, follows The Esplanade in Surfers Paradise to Kurrawa, continues through Mermaid Beach and turns at Marine Parade in Miami at the halfway point, then heads back north. The organisers count 29 km of beachside running and put the course elevation at 62 metres. The cut-off is seven hours from the gun, which equals 6 hours 40 minutes from the last wave's start. The first Gold Coast Marathon was held on 2 September 1979 in Evandale. The course record is 2:06:20 for men (Haftu Strintzos, 2026) and 2:24:22 for women (Yuki Nakamura, 2024).