A WORLD-class running festival sets the scene to share this city's history and activate the community in a way to rival the big calendar events, City of Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh says.
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The inaugural Ballarat Marathon festival is also a chance to create history with hometown Olympic marathoner Steve Moneghetti making clear the fast, relatively flat course lends itself to stories like Liam Adams, who ran the fastest marathon time by an Australian on home soil in last weekend's Gold Coast Marathon.
"We want that in Ballarat," Mr Moneghetti said in Ballarat Marathon's official launch to a widespread community stakeholder contingent at Ballarat Town Hall on Thursday afternoon.
Ballarat Marathon is not affiliated with the Commonwealth Games but could offer a taster for the long distance event, whatever shape that might take, as part of the Games' athletics program.
But as much as the festival has all the hallmarks to attract the elites and potential for world records to fall, Cr McIntosh said to bring all that a major marathon could offer to Ballarat was also an incredible chance to showcase the stories already here.
We will run past significant history, significant green space ... it's a charming course. Many people have sought marathons in other countries for lots of reasons but this is an iconic course.
- Samantha McIntosh, City of Ballarat councillor and marathon runner
"We will run past significant history, significant green space, Lake Wendouree and along our broad streets - it's a charming course," said Cr McIntosh, who is also an experienced marathon runner.
"Many people have sought marathons in other countries for lots of reasons but this is an iconic course. It will start and finish at the town hall, it will go through Victoria Park and the Lake precinct and take in Indigenous history with Deanne Gilson's art Murrup Laarr. There is also a lot of heritage and the city's gold rush history.
"This event really has the ability to tell a lot of stories that haven't really been told, such as the Arch of Victory and the Lucas ladies. That's attractive to many visitors to Ballarat."
Cr McIntosh said the course had the potential for views to rival her favourite Great Ocean Road 45-kilometre run from Lorne to Apollo Bay.
Similar to entering Apollo Bay, Cr McIntosh said the finish by Ballarat Town Hall should have the crowds rallying runners along - also not unlike the criterium feel in the AusCycling Road National Championships.
International marathon runner Shane Nankervis said the team behind Ballarat Marathon had the foresight and energy to make this event a success and build on Ballarat's reputation as Australia's unofficial home of distance running. But the event also needed mass community participation on course, on the sidelines cheering and in a large volunteer fleet.
Mr Nankervis, who is a school teacher, said this was a great chance to activate schools, especially those on course: Loreto, St Patrick's College, Ballarat High and Ballarat Clarendon College.
"Being a school teacher I'd like to see them out cheering. Now more than ever we need to get young people off screens and moving," Mr Nankervis said. "Whenever we do something in Ballarat, community involvement is a key thing and Ballarat displays that in the Road Nats - if we could translate some of that to the marathon, it would be amazing."
Ballarat Marathon co-creator Adam McNicol said the aim was to have the professional hosting standard of a Melbourne or Sydney marathons and be positioned as "the largest and best running festival in regional Australia".
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