The 14th annual City of Newcastle NewRun is here, with over 2000 participants expected in the ultimate festival of running this Sunday, April 11.
Newcastle will see multiple running events held across the day, including Marathon Tyres 1⁄2 Marathon (21.1km), Newcastle Herald Hill to Harbour 10km, H Events 5km and Hunter Orthodontics 2k4Kids races.
Over the past 14 years, the course has evolved from a single 10km event to a significant running festival with races suited for recreational to elite runners.
NewRun will also feature the first-ever City of Newcastle Marathon, which is a massive 42.195 km race.
H Events Director Paul Humphreys said finding space to host a 42km event for a large number of people was not as simple as it seemed.
“In the tick list of events that a great city needs to have, the marathon is right up there with the annual (Newcastle) Show, the footy grand final or maybe even a car race—for Newcastle, it has been a while between drinks,” Humphreys said.
“The are many reasons for that, but none more obvious than the need to find somewhere to run 42.195km!
“Add to that the need to keep traffic flowing in a dynamic cityscape, a massive influx of residents, providing directional and water stations, medical treatment, race timing, live commentary, finish arches, barriers, while simultaneously staging five races from 42km to 2km for 2000 runners—at the very least, there are a few balls in the air!
“This year’s marathon will see over 300 individuals and 100 relay team members take on the marathon challenge over four laps of a 10.55km course around Newcastle Harbour.
“Another 1600 runners will take on the shorter distances.”
Humphreys said they were appreciative of the City of Newcastle for their sponsorship and support of the event, especially through COVID-19.
“It’s a great start to what has been a long time coming,” he said.
“The international marathon scene has been slowly changing, with communities and councils all over the world asking event directors to reduce the footprint of their events.
“It’s ironic that the very thing so many organisers feared would ruin marathon events is improving the experience for runners, spectators and the non-event community alike.”
Marathons are traditionally structured as destination runs with a track stretching from one end of a city to the other, enabling spectators only to get a quick look at the runners.
Humphreys said lap courses reduced the course footprint, allowed crowd interaction, and made road and pedestrian networking more manageable.
“With Newcastle’s Foreshore path network, it was an obvious place to stage a small but burgeoning marathon event,” he said.
“This year’s course is particularly complicated with various construction zones to navigate.”
The 42km marathon runs from Queens Wharf to Newcastle Beach, turning to return to Nobbys Beach before following the new Macquarie Pier (break wall) and then back.
Runners will then return past Queens Wharf, into Honeysuckle Foreshore at Argyle St and run west through Honeysuckle until Worth Pl, which enters the new cycleway along the harbour.
The track continues till the eastern end of the Wickham Marina before the runners return to the start, looping four times and finishing on the Market St lawns.
Humphreys said online entries for all races were still being accepted, with less than 100 entries left in the COVID-19 safe maximum capacity.
For more information on race times, changed traffic conditions, road closures, or entering into one of the races, visit newrun.com.au.
Hayley McMahon
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