Marathon a major boost to Garden City’s economy
A first in five years, the huge success of the Toowoomba Marathon sees local tourism and hospitality operators exceed booking capacities. See the full list of winners from the event here.
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It’s been a painstaking five-year-long wait for running enthusiasts as the Toowoomba Marathon makes its long-awaited debut on Sunday.
The event, hosted by Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, saw around 1900 eager runners from across the nation take part in the inaugural event.
Taking place during the Labour Day long-weekend, the major success saw tourism and hospitality operators in the Garden City exceed capacity.
Toowoomba Central Plaza Apartment Hotel manager Kaye Lepper said the event brought a major increase to previous Labour Day long weekend bookings.
“Every hotel in Toowoomba has been booked out this weekend, I had to deny 20 rooms alone on Saturday,” she said.
“There were only two rooms left on booking.com in the whole city when I looked on Saturday.”
Ms Lepper said a majority of bookings were taken up by overnight stays of marathon participants.
Business wasn’t only booming for the region’s hotels, with cafes in the region also experiencing a major increase in patrons in town for the marathon event.
Urban Grounds cafe manager Cameron Beard said Sunday morning bookings had reached capacity, with cafe staff unfortunately having to turn patrons away.
“Saturday was also very busy, and we’re hoping for the same on Monday,” he said.
Mr Beard said it was a wholesome experience to see so many people coming to the cafe and enjoying themselves, along with a good meal.
Toowoomba Marathon organiser Events Management Queensland chief executive Ben Mannion said plans were already in the works for another event.
“We do want to do some events out at Wellcamp Airport, so we’ve got some things we’re going to announce hopefully in the lead up to that,” he said.
Mr Mannion said the response from the Toowoomba community as well as runners in the event had been encouraging.
“Our athletes have said it’s a real challenging course, but it’s been a really rewarding course for them as well, with great views of Picnic Point and the like,” he said.
“We’ve got people as far as Singapore and Malaysia who have come to this event, as well as people form New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
“So we’re really putting the marathon in Toowoomba back on the running map.”
RACE DAY WINNERS
Spectators and participants turned out in droves at the Toowoomba Sports Ground on May 5, preparing to take their mark at the start line.
The major turn out was a significant increase from the last marathon event held in 2019 which had six winners.
See the winners of each race category of the 2024 Toowoomba Marathon presented by Wellcamp Airport and their times below.
TOOWOOMBA WELLCAMP AIRPORT MARATHON WINNER, MALE CATEGORY
• Jamie Lacey with a time of two hours and forty-one minutes.
TOOWOOMBA WELLCAMP AIRPORT MARATHON WINNER, FEMALE CATEGORY
• Kathryn Parkinson with a time of two hours and fifty-nine minutes.
ASICS HALF MARATHON WINNER, MALE CATEGORY
• Aidan Hobbs with a time of one hour and nine minutes.
ASICS HALF MARATHON WINNER, FEMALE CATEGORY
• Melanie Magarey with a time of one hour and twenty-eight minutes.
VANDERBILT PRIVATE EQUITY 10KM WINNER, MALE CATEGORY
• Ben Drew with a time of thirty-three minutes.
VANDERBILT PRIVATE EQUITY 10KM WINNER, FEMALE CATEGORY
• Tamara Carvolth with a time of thirty-eight minutes.
VISIT TOOWOOMBA REGION 5KM WINNER, FEMALE CATEGORY
• Brielle Erbacher with a time of seventeen minutes and forty-four seconds.
VISIT TOOWOOMBA REGION 5KM WINNER, MALE CATEGORY
• Timothy Hogno with a time sixteen minutes and twenty-two seconds.
TOOWOOMBA CHRONICLE 2KM JUNIOR DASH, BOYS CATEGORY
• Judah Magarey with a time of six minutes and fifty-nine seconds.
TOOWOOMBA CHRONICLE 2KM JUNIOR DASH, GIRLS CATEGORY
• Eden Broksch with a time of eight minutes and twenty seconds.
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