The Age Run Melbourne

The Age Run Melbourne, is the community fitness event for everyone. With the right training, anyone, at any age and any fitness level can participate. It's also an opportunity to raise money for the charity you care about most.

Run Melbourne is proud to announce The Age as the new naming rights partner, in time for the 2012 event. On Sunday, 15 July 2012, The Age Run Melbourne will be held once again, offering participants a half-marathon, a 10km run and a 5km run or walk starting and finishing at Federation Square.  

History

In 1994 Start to Finish Event Management created a major running and walking event for Melbourne and Victoria incorporating many of the cities finest landmarks and giving participants a chance to make their weekend run an occasion to remember by finishing with a lap of the iconic MCG.

So was born the Run to the G, and the event has become a landmark on the Victorian running calendar, renowned for both the quality of runners and the diversity of participants it attracts.

Celebrities, parents with strollers, octogenarians, and kids in their teens have all had the chance to pit themselves against elite runners such as Steve Moneghetti or Susie Power, even if only for the first 100m.  

Much has changed since those early days – the event no longer finishes with a lap of the MCG, nor does it start in Yarra Park, the original distances of 4/8km are now 5/10km and a half-marathon (21.1km) has been added.

The traditional date in May moved to mid June and then again to mid July and the event now has a new home at Federation Square.

And now it is not just a big run one day of the year, with training runs being added in several locations two days each week and the three day Health and Fitness Expo added in 2011.

After being a major sponsor of the event in its early years, The Age became naming rights sponsor in 2004 and this coincided with a resurgence in participants in the event.

Attendances varied in the early years from 5500 to a record 6800 in 1997. Despite a few hiccups including a year when the race didn’t finish on the MCG (1999) and a year when the event wasn’t held (2001) numbers are on the rise again reaching nearly 9500 in 2006. In 2011 a new participant record of 20,500 was made.

The course has changed both distances and routes throughout the years, with the main event going from an 8km to 10km in 2003, the shorter event from 4km to 5km and a half marathon (21.1km) was added in 2006.

Despite all these changes the inner city course remains Melbourne’s most scenic and takes in such landmarks as Flinders St. Station, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Federation Square, Princes Bridge, the Sandridge rail bridge, the Yarra River and the picturesque parkland at Birrarung Marr.

In 2006 the event moved to Federation Square and added a half marathon. In 2008 the name of the event was changed to Run Melbourne.

In 2009 the courses were changed. The start line on Flinders St for all events and running across the Sandridge rail bridge for the half marathon was eliminated and all three events – half marathon, 10k run and 5k run/walk started on St Kilda Rd near Linlithgow Ave.

While the growth in the number of participants for Run Melbourne was impressive from 13,318 to 17,665, even more impressive was the way Victorians embraced the charity aspect of the event in 2010.

In 2010 participant numbers grew some 32.6 per cent, yet the money raised by the participants for some 254 charities more than doubled from $533,000 to $1,071,962, making Run Melbourne the most successful running event in Australia per head for raising funds.

Course records

10km

The course was changed to a 10km run in 2003. Olympian Lee Troop holds the men’s record with Susie Power the women’s record holder.

8km

Prior to 2003, the main event had been an 8km run with many of the best times achieved in the earlier years of the event.   

Men

1 Michael Power      22:53               1999

2 Nigel Adkin            23:08               1999

3 John Walsh           23:24               1995

Women  

1 Clair Fearnley                    25:23               1996

2 Susan Michelsson           25:26               1996

3 Carolyn Schuwalow         25:34               1995

Junior G/shorter event

The Junior G was originally an option just for younger participants. Through the years the emphasis of this as a ‘junior’ event diminished, and the course changed from the original 3km to a 4km and now a 5km course. For this reason we have not provided course records for the shorter event, as our records are not sufficiently detailed enough to reflect this. Where available, the results for this event have been included in the Hall of Fame below of past placegetters. A 3km kids run on Saturday morning was added in 2011. 

Numbers of participants

1994    5500

1995    6300

1996    6500

1997    6800

1998    6500

1999    5591

2000    4361

2001      no event  - no course

2002    3623

2003    3106

2004    5175

2005    6887

2006    9431

2007    13,972

2008    11,552

2009    13,712

2010    17,754

2011    20,447