Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays — a town built for people who want to be on or near the water at all times. Running a marathon here is a slightly surreal experience, in the best possible way. Tropical Queensland surroundings, a community event atmosphere fostered by the Whitsunday Running Club, and distances for everyone from first-timers to serious competitors. The 2026 Tassal Airlie Beach Marathon Festival runs on 18-19 July, and if you've been looking for an excuse to visit the Whitsundays, this is a very good one.
The marathon course is a World Athletics certified point-to-point route through the Airlie Beach township and surrounding roads, taking in the famous Whitsunday Coast with glimpses of the Coral Sea throughout. The event is run in the dry season — Queensland's best weather window — with cool mornings and low humidity making conditions genuinely ideal for distance running.
Marathon (42.2km), Half Marathon (21.1km), 10km, and 5km. The half marathon is particularly popular and typically sells out well ahead of the full marathon. All distances are chip-timed.
The Airlie Beach Marathon is run by the Whitsunday Running Club, and it shows. This isn't a corporate event with plastic barriers and anonymous finish chutes — it's a community race with all the warmth that implies. Locals cheer, volunteers are generous with encouragement, and the post-race atmosphere on the Airlie Beach foreshore is genuinely good fun.
Airlie Beach is 1,150km north of Brisbane — fly into Proserpine Airport (also known as Whitsunday Coast Airport), which receives direct flights from Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. The town has excellent accommodation across all price points, and the Whitsunday islands are just a boat ride away if you want to turn race weekend into something longer.
