Runners have given the short distance events of the Ballarat Marathon a big tick of approval, despite the challenge of the long Sturt Street hill.
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On Saturday afternoon participants in the 5km and mile (1600m) events took over the CBD streets with crowds cheering them on from the Sturt Street gardens.
Kody Taggart, 17, from Carisbrook was the first person to cross the finish line of the inaugural Ballarat Marathon festival, leading in hundreds of runners of all abilities taking part in the 5km mass participation event.
Completing two laps of the 2.5km course up and down Sturt Street in 17 minutes 11 seconds he praised the crowd for their support.
"I was feeling confident up the first hill and coming down the hill, then on the second lap someone overtook me and I was sitting in second place which was pretty tough then I overtook back on the downhill," he said.
"The crowd was amazing and cheering."
For the Kramer family, the 5km event was a family affair but Lachlan, 11, took out the bragging rights finishing the course in 19 minutes and 19 seconds, well under his goal time of 20 minutes.
His brother Miles, 9, finished not long after in 22:31, narrowly beating dad Scott who finished eight seconds later, and mum Andrea six minutes later.
The two boys train with Ballarat YCW Athletics Club and were eagerly watching their friends and training partners complete.
"It was kind of fun and the hill was hard to do. Long but not too long," Miles said after crossing the finish line outside Ballarat Town Hall.
"We are just here with our kids to do the first Ballarat Marathon," Andrea said.
More than 4500 participants have registered across all the events of the two-day Ballarat Marathon running festival.
Ballarat marathon legend Steve Moneghetti said the buzz and vibe around the shorter Saturday afternoon events as "so much positivity and engagement".
"You can see the impact and positive feel and atmosphere. It's great for the town and hopefully builds on the reputation of Ballarat as a place to come," he said.
Runners of all abilities and ages took part in the 5km event and the 1.6km mile but all eyes were on the elite runners in each category who competed separately from the masses.
Two time Olympican Zoe Buckman made it a clean sweep of the two short distances winning the women's elite 5km and mile races.
"It's tough just trying to maintain composure on the hills," she said after her 5km win in 16 minutes and 21 seconds.
"The road race compared to a track race, you've got the energy of the audience around getting behind you as you run along the street," she said.
Melbourne runner Dale Carroll took out the men's elite 5km race in 14:36 in a tight race which saw five of the field finish in 15 minutes or less.
While he has run around Lake Wendouree, he was not familiar with the street circuit and the Sturt Street hill took him by surprise.
"It was more hilly than I thought - it was a bit deceiving when you look at it online," he said.
"Having two laps of the course is really nice ... on the track it's 12.5 laps," he said.
Perhaps the biggest cheers in the elite men's race were saved for 10-year-old Ballarat runner Cooper Tuddenham who mixed it with the "big boys" in the 11-man field.
Despite being half the size of his competitors, he crossed the line in the elite men's race just minutes behind in 19 minutes 20 seconds.
"It was hard and it was fun getting to run with the bigger boys and push myself," he said.
Dublin Track Club runner Paul Robinson used the elite mile race as a training run for the Olympics.
The Irishman has been training in Melbourne for the past three months and decided to use the Ballarat Marathon event as a "last bit of preparation" before returning to Ireland this week.
"The first time I came to Australia 12 years ago I lived in Ballarat for three months and trained here," he said. "I've got a big year with the Olympics this year in Paris, that's the main aim, and I've been (in Melbourne) training since Christmas."
Although it was his first time running Sturt Street, his local knowledge told him he was in for a challenge. "When I looked at the map I knew it was a finish up hill," he said.
Ballarat mayor Des Hudson said the "sense of community spirit" around the running festival was fantastic.
"Seeing the different events unfold, the great mix of elite competitors as well as community-based people out enjoying the moment and being able to participate ... has built such a great atmosphere," he said.
"It has really delivered in terms of setting the groundwork for what can really become an annual event on our calendar and propel it to what it can be, hopefully attracting more participants to the events at a national level and (being) ambitious enough to be international."
On Sunday the longer events - the 42.2km Ballarat Marathon, the half marathon and 10km races - will take place from 8am. Extensive road closures are in place throughout the Ballarat CBD.
