Cairns Marathon Festival, live.

Four laps of the Cairns Esplanade in July

The Cairns Marathon Festival is a flat waterfront running festival in tropical Queensland on Sunday 11 July 2027.

The 2027 Cairns Marathon Festival is on Sunday 11 July 2027. Every distance starts and finishes at Fogarty Park, and the courses use the Cairns Esplanade and the streets around it, past the lagoon. The organiser is Atlas Events.

The marathon starts at 5:45, before sunrise, and covers four flat laps of the Esplanade course. It is AIMS certified and a Boston qualifier, and the minimum age is 17. The half marathon starts with the marathon and runs two laps, with a minimum age of 14. The 10 km starts at 8:00 on an out and back course along the Esplanade, the 5 km run starts at 10:00 on a single loop, and the 5 km walk and the 2 km family dash both start at 11:00.

Flat roads and an early start make the longer distances a good choice for someone chasing a personal best, and the shorter events let parents who have raced a longer distance come back and run or walk with their children. Prams and wheelchairs are welcome in the 2 km, starting from the back of the field.

For spectators, the lap format is the point: marathon and half marathon participants pass the same parts of the Esplanade several times, so family and friends can stay near Fogarty Park and see them again and again without moving.

On Livebib you can follow a participant who chooses to share their own live position from the phone they carry. This is not the organiser's timing, and the official results come from the Cairns Marathon Festival.