TWO of Australia's greatest marathon runners will help to open the inaugural Ballarat Marathon.
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Hometown hero Steve Moneghetti has been presented the ceremonial number one bib, which will be allocated in his name each year as a tribute to his career and passion in driving the sport.
Robert De Castella, the 1983 marathon world champion and man who set a standard for Moneghetti, has also confirmed to organisers he be in town with a group of runners from his Indigenous Marathon Project to Ballarat.
More than 4500 participants had registered for the Ballarat Marathon running festival by Friday lunchtime, far exceeding organisers' expectations, and sparking a brief pause in half-marathon entries.
Ballarat Marathon director and co-founder Adam McNicol said the half-marathon field had "exploded" to about 1800 entrants. Registrations for the popular 21.1-kilometre event have re-opened after a brief pause to source more race timing bibs.
Mr McNicol said running festival experts had keep saying the half-marathon would be the booming field but weeks ago half-marathon entries had lagged behind the marathon field.
And the entries keep rolling in.
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The marathon (42.2 kilometres) has about 1150 entrants for the double-lap course through the city.
Sovereign Hill Red Coats will fire muskets to officially start the marathon and half-marathon events, which will run simultaneously on Sunday, April 28. Keith "Buzz" Hong, best known at Sydney's City2Surf, will manage the technical start and logistics.
All Ballarat Marathon event courses have been measured and approved to World Athletics international standard.
Ballarat paralympic hopeful Sam Rizzo will be leading a para-contingent in a 10km wheelrace, ahead of the marathon start.
The Saturday afternoon program will feature about 800 runners in the mile (1600-metre) and five-kilometre events. Mr McNicol said some of the elite fields would be small, but this was to showcase the athletics community.
Big crowds are expected to line the course on Sunday, particularly near Ballarat Town Hall's start and finish precinct. The looped courses offer spectators a chance to see their friend of loved one at multiple points in the race.
There will be entertainment and music about the course, including a band in the Titanic Bandstand in the Sturt Street gardens, right near where runners are climbing to the finish.
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Mr McNicol said it was amazing to see everything come together after years of planning, from what started as a idea that grew when running during pandemic lockdowns.
"We did think this was a pretty good idea when we were workshopping this idea up and down the [Yarrowee] trail," Mr McNicol said.
"Running is booming and Ballarat is the perfect place to host a marathon.
"The idea has come off - we've managed to get in front of people and will have a couple of thousand runners from Ballarat out on course."
Ballarat Marathon running festival comes as the Melbourne Marathon already has been accruing long waiting lists for its marathon and half-marathon events in mid-October.
The Ballarat festival runs from April 27-28.
