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THERE was always a sense a few top runners would sign up for the inaugural Ballarat marathon festival.
Already, four weeks out from race day, and the word is that there is shaping up to be a bigger band of strong performers across all fields than even optimistic organisers had expected.
A $50,000 prize purse, first dangled in October, has helped reinforce credibility with decent offerings for placegetters in each event plus time bonuses in the marathon.
A leading road running technical expert signing off on the course to international standard is a big sign of approval - including the course being declared a Paralympic qualifier for the marathon.
A reputation as one of Australia's top - if not the top - distance running training bases has been crucial to rallying interest. This has been reinforced by the likes of international elites Steve Moneghetti, Collis Birmingham and Shane Nankervis, who have long championed and trained with world contenders in our backyard. Even British track star Sir Mo Farah has come to see what the Ballarat running scene was all about.
But this is still only Ballarat Marathon's debut.
This is getting really exciting.
There is a huge appetite for serious running events. Melbourne Marathon Festival's 2024 marathon and half-marathon events sold out months ago - and the festival does not run until mid-October.
Such mass participation is driven by the recreational runner out on course taking on their own personal challenge or just to have fun.
Elites out on the road, slogging it out on the exact same course at the exact same time, really add something special.
One of the latest entrants is Sydneysider Tom Do Canto who clocked a time of two hours, 11 minutes and 51 seconds in Spain's Valencia Marathon in December 2023.
This is a runner, considered among Australia's top 10 marathon contenders, who won the 2016 Melbourne Marathon in his first crack at a 42.2-kilometre race.
We should not be surprised in the elite interest.
You only have to look to another epic Stawell Gift carnival this Easter with Olympian Peter Bol sharpening up his 2024 Paris Olympics campaign off scratch in the 1000m handicap on Central Park turf amid a deluge.
Bol joins a decorated list of Olympians keen to test their game at Stawell. (Notably Cathy Freeman, Tamsyn Manou, Steve Hooker and former world's fastest man Asafa Powell).
Ballarat athletes once again stood up on Australia's richest footrace stage, reinforcing the city's running reputation predominantly as sprinters.
Eighteen-year-old Chloe Kinnersly, off the 9.75m mark, was a fraction of a second from becoming the fourth POD Squadder to win the Stawell Women's Gift. Kinnersly effectively warmed up for her Gift semi-final on Saturday by capturing the women's 70-metre sash on Easter Monday.
She battled to stay warm and ready amid prolonged rain delays as officials mopped up the track for the title races.
Stablemate Halle Martin won a brave women's 400m final off 31m before the storms on Easter Monday, ploughing down six athletes on marks ahead of her to clearly take the title.
Looking at brave races, fellow POD Squad athlete Rory Nunn chased down his Stawell dream that had been a decade in the making.
Nunn, aged 32, won the frontmarkers 400m handicap after about 15 attempts, including two runners-up and a fourth placing the past three Easters.
Stawell's storm conditions, and a flooded course, had threatened his final to be abandoned late on Easter Monday. He instead ran about 6pm with little crowd, no broadcast and no presentation (until Tuesday).
Is there little wonder people are keen to travel and find out what our running is all about?
Ballarat Marathon has the potential to be the start of a whole bigger movement in this city - just wait and see how this runs out.
