Port Douglas Gran Fondo debuts new event, Run Port Douglas
Port Douglas Gran Fondo is set to get bigger and better with the addition of a new running event, which will debut next year. Everything you need to know.
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The inaugural Run Port Douglas event has been added to the Port Douglas Gran Fondo Festival which will take place between September 12 to 14, 2025.
The new addition, which aims to lure around 1000 participants and their families to the region, will include a variety of running events.
Festival director Bade Stapleton said the addition of the running courses was the next step in expanding the popular festival.
“We’d like to see over 1000 runners to match the 1000 riders, so doubling the size of the event overnight,” Mr Stapleton said.
Participants will be able to choose from 2km, 5km, 10km or a 21.5km half marathon course, with routes running through the town and finishing on Four Mile Beach, before the Gran Fondo cycling event on Sunday.
“People will come up here because now they can do two things,” he said.
“On Saturday, they can do their run and on Sunday, they can do the Gran Fondo.”
Douglas Shire Mayor Lisa Scomazzon said the event was a great opportunity to showcase Port Douglas and the Far North not only to the rest of Australia, but to the world.
“We’ve been on the road with Bade right from the beginning and council’s been very positive about the Gran Fondo which we’ve included another three years of funding so we’re really excited about the next phase of it,” Cr Scomazzon said.
“It showcases our shire not just to Australia but to the world, so we’re really excited about this and it should be a really good weekend.”
Local runner and teenage triathlete Luke Swindale said he was excited to take part in the inaugural Run Port Douglas and run against his southern counterparts.
“We don’t have many running events in Far North Queensland so to have another running event is amazing, because down south, all my competitors are in Brisbane so I don’t really get to race against them,” Mr Swindale said.
“So to have them up here is just awesome.”
Mr Swindale said he was looking to run in the 10km race on Saturday, before completing the 100km Gran Fondo ride on Sunday.
Tropical Tourism North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen said the new addition would attract a wider group of travellers to the Far North and boost the local economy.
“These events are really hard to get up off the ground and to see the results this year, we’re talking about lifting the economic impact to just over $2m a year mark for a market that doesn’t normally come to Tropical North,” Mr Olsen said.
“It’s who love to get out and be active at home and they can come and do that in one of Australia’s’ most idyllic holiday destinations.”
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