The Henderson Newcastle Marathon is the harbour city's flagship road race, run each April from The Station, the restored old Newcastle railway terminus. The 2027 event is on 18 April. The World Athletics-certified course threads the heritage city centre and the harbour foreshore, catching Newcastle in its autumn best once the summer beach crowds have gone.
Two distances are on offer, the marathon and the half marathon, on a flat, certified course suited to a PB or a qualifier.
Newcastle has quietly become one of the better short-break cities in the state, with strong surf beaches a few kilometres from the centre, a good cafe and food scene around Darby Street and Hunter Street, and a revived waterfront. The race is a fair excuse to spend a weekend there.
Newcastle is about two and a half hours north of Sydney by car, with flights into Newcastle Airport from Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and a train from Sydney Central taking around three hours.
