Race Report – Sydney Marathon
Written by Rob Gillham
4am on Sunday 30th August 2026, my alarm goes off in Balmoral Beach, a quite beachfront suburb in Sydney, which can mean only one thing, and why I have flown to the other side of the world, it must be time for Abbott Major Marathon No 5, after having already completed London, Tokyo, Berlin and Chicago. Luckily, I am not in the wave 1 starters, otherwise it would have been a 3am alarm call so that you can have breakfast 3 hours before race start time (well that’s my preference). A bowl of porridge and a couple of cups of Yorkshire tea (I never travel without a supply of decent tea bags), a quick shower to make me feel more awake and into my kit, double checking that I have gels, watch and salt tablets, then it’s a very short walk to the bus stop for the 6.10am bus. The reason I picked this location to stay was the fact that the bus goes right pass the start area and after a 15-minute bus ride it does indeed deposit me directly outside the park, instead of those that had to get to the nearest metro stop and had a 1km walk.
The starting area is North Sydney Oval, which for anyone who may have been to Sydney before and done the Parkrun there, will know that it is a 3 lap parkrun, which goes almost around the perimeter to get the 5k, so that will give you an idea of its size, or lack of, compared with the vast acreage of Greenwich Park for the London Marathon start. (It was also the starting point for the 2000 Olympics Marathon, but they ran in the opposite direction and there weren’t 40,000 starters for that race). Hence the reason participants are set off in waves and given a specific time they can enter the park, which is strictly enforced, so there is no point arriving early as you will only be stood on the street. At 6.25am our green wave is allowed into the park and then it’s time to navigate the usual loo queue with 35 minutes until you are allowed into the start chute (7am). We slowly all move onto the road beside the park and then can see the screens and the excitement starts to build. Last check of the shoelaces and at 7.38am (very precise) we start to move forward past the gas flares to warm you up (quite welcome as it is only about 12 degrees before the sun comes fully up as it is the last day of Winter in Sydney) and off we go on our 26 mile and 385-yard journey around the streets of the city.
The first 2 miles are downhill, as the start is the highest point of the course (80.4m above sea level and the finish is only 5.2m above sea level – hence why it cannot be a world record course, as the decent it classed as too much) and everyone’s advice is still ringing in my ears, go hard in these 2 miles and you will live to regret it in the closing stages. So, its steady away down the hills keeping an eye on my pace and just enjoying the fact that I am running in Australia. After 2 miles one of the 2 major highlights of the race comes into view, Sydney Harbour Bridge, having climbed it and stood underneath it, to finally run across it is rather special. But no sooner are you on it then you are over it (a bit like its sister bridge, the Tyne Bridge on the Great North Run), then it is 4 miles around the central business district with a few undulations and nothing exciting apart from the huge Imax complex to see. At just around 7 miles as you turn into the Rocks and Circular Quay area you see the Opera House and the finish line over the bay, but that fleeting view will not be seen again for another 20 miles! Now it’s a steady climb up Macquarie St and then onto and up Oxford Steet arriving at the top of the climb in Taylor Square at just over 9.5 miles. Here you are greeting by a sea of rainbows and drag queens serenading you as this is the heart of the LGBTQI+ area of Sydney. Taylor Square leads you onto Anzac Parade which is a fairly flat out and back with a dogleg as well, but it is almost 9 miles in total so it is just a case of pounding out the miles and soaking up the atmosphere, however at the far end of it as you turn around, you can say to yourself, ‘heading for home”. Just after mile 18 you turn into Centennial Park for a big loop of the park, and then as you head out of the park you pass Moore Park and Sydney’s Anzac stadium, not the Munich Anzac stadium that was on the reverse of the medals (mixing up Sunderland and Newcastle on last year’s GNR medals comes to mind). Ignoring the clever spectator with a sign saying just over 5000km to go, you pass the stadium and you reach Taylor Square and Oxford Street for the second time, but at least this time you are heading down the hill. As you reach the bottom you turn in towards the Royal Botanic Garden at around mile 24, where the kind organisers put a little sting in the tail by making you climb up towards Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, a promontory opposite the main harbour, and whilst the climbs are not steep by this point on tired legs they do feel like squirrel hill on steroids. Round the chair and back down with a final little climb past the art gallery, around the corner, back down Macquarie Street and then with only about 100m left to go, the Opera House comes into sight and the finish line. 26 miles and 385 yards around Sydney completed in a time of 3.50.03. Oh, and one very final cruel twist, there are steps or a steep hill to climb to get you out of the finishers area and out to the nearest pub to celebrate. The support around the course is brilliant, and along with London’s finish past Buckingham Palace and the Mall, this finish must be one of the best. So, if you don’t mind sitting on planes for almost 24 hours and fancy a trip down-under, then I can highly recommend this as a major marathon experience.