Australia's marquee road weekend is almost here. The 46th running of the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon takes place on Sunday 5 July, the centrepiece of a festival of running that fills the Queensland coastline with tens of thousands of competitors across the marathon, half marathon and shorter distances. Organisers say the 2026 edition has drawn entrants from a record 59 countries, underlining the event's growing pull as one of the most popular destination races in the southern hemisphere and a favourite stop for runners chasing a fast winter-season time.
Part of the Gold Coast's appeal is the course itself. The out-and-back route hugs the coast on flat, fast roads and is regularly cited as one of the quickest marathons in Australia, a reputation that has long made it a magnet for personal-best attempts and national-class fields alike. A diverse international line-up headlines the women's race this year, setting up an intriguing clash between proven African marathoners and a chasing pack of established and emerging talent, with the cool, stable July conditions on the coast offering an ideal stage for a quick run at the front.
The wheelchair marathon carries one of the weekend's best storylines. Australian Paralympic champion Madison de Rozario returns in pursuit of a fifth Gold Coast wheelchair title, a tally that would further cement her status as one of the race's defining champions and a standard-bearer for the wheelchair division in front of a home crowd. Her bid is one of several home-soil narratives that give the Gold Coast its distinctive blend of international competition and Australian sporting pride.
The supporting programme is loaded too. Over race weekend the schedule runs from the blue-riband marathon down through the half marathon and a clutch of community distances, and Australian marathon record holder Andy Buchanan is among the names lining up over the shorter road events as he chases further honours during the festival. That depth across distances is central to the Gold Coast's identity: a serious elite race wrapped inside a mass-participation celebration, where first-timers and Olympians share the same stretch of coastline on the same morning.
With a record international entry, a course built for speed and a clutch of compelling elite and wheelchair contests, the 2026 Gold Coast Marathon shapes up as one of the standout road races of the southern winter. Attention now turns to start-list confirmations and the weather window on the Queensland coast, but the early signs point to a fast, festival-style weekend when the gun fires on 5 July.