Ready to test your limits?

Whether you’re a beginner, a professional athlete, getting the whole family involved, or even just cheering from the sidelines, find your next challenge here in Queensland. Blessed with gorgeous weather year-round, our state lends itself particularly well to outdoor pursuits, it’s little wonder that Queensland boasts such a full and exciting endurance events calendar. From ocean swims to marathons and cycling races to triathlons, there’s no shortage of endurance events to test your skills and physical fitness throughout the year. 

Brisbane endurance events

The River City hosts a wide variety of endurance events, with something for everyone from elites through to mass participation events where everyone of all abilities can join in. The Sunday Mail Transurban Bridge to Brisbane is a great example of a mass participation event that offers runners, joggers and walkers of all abilities a 10km course running from the base of the Gateway Bridge in Murarrie to the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills. This iconic running event also features a 5km course and, like most running events in Queensland, there’s the opportunity to make your participation even more impactful by raising money for charity.

Open to the public since 1992, the Brisbane Marathon Festival is an AIMS-Certified event that attracts elite athletes from across the world, as well as thousands of recreational athletes testing their endurance limits. Held annually in early June when the mercury drops slightly and the mornings are cool, this running event takes participants through some of the city’s most prominent landmarks, including the iconic Story Bridge. Along with the marathon and half marathon, there’s a 5km and 10km run, and several charity walks.

Surrounded by gorgeous hinterland and national parks, Brisbane, naturally, boasts a popular trail running scene and community, with local trail running specialists, the Trail Co, hosting around 10 trail running events annually around South East Queensland. The main event of the year is hands down ‘The Guzzler’, one of Australia’s largest trail runs and an exhausting 100km trek that certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Other trail runs on offer include the Glass Half Full (50km), the Big Sipper (21km) and the Dry Run (10 kilometres).

One of the many ‘destination events’ held across Queensland, the Straddie Salute Triathlon Festival is a unique event that takes participants on a stunning natural terrain course across Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), which lies just off the coast of Brisbane. This biennial endurance event attracts elite athletes the world over, but with a range of events to suit participants of all ages and abilities, including a duathlon for kids, there’s certainly something for everyone here.

Held annually in March and April, The Brisbane Cycling Festival is the largest multidisciplinary cycling event in Australia. While not an endurance event in the traditional sense, there are plenty of opportunities to push yourself to your limits, or simply enjoy participating in a celebration of all things cycling that provides a great opportunity to get out and meet others who also prefer to see the world from a bike saddle.  

Gold Coast endurance events

The internationally famous Gold Coast Marathon is held every year in July and features no less than eight races over two days, with many experienced runners competing in one event on the Saturday and another on the Sunday. One of the main draw cards to this weekend endurance event is the fast and flat course which takes in some of the most beautiful and iconic sights of the Gold Coast, and follows the Gold Coast Broadwater to the stunning coastline along Main Beach to Burleigh Heads before finishing at the Southport Broadwater Parklands.

There’s also a range of courses to choose from during the Gold Coast Running Festival in April, with 2023 the first year the ‘Garmin ¾ Marathon’ is open to participants. If that’s pushing yourself a little too far, there’s also the City Cave Half Marathon, the Gold Coast Sports Medicine 10km, the Brooks Running 5km and the Michael Shelley 1km Dash to consider. 

If running a marathon isn’t enough to push you to your limits, why not combine a run with an ocean swim and a bike ride? The Pho3nix Gold Coast Tri – Luke Harrop Memorial is well known as the “triathlon for triathletes”, making it an event you won’t want to miss out on if gruelling endurance events are your thing. But you don’t have to be an elite triathlete to participate – with ‘Sprint’, ‘Enticer’ and ‘Pho3nix Kids Triathlon’ options now available, there’s a triathlon for participants of all abilities on the Gold Coast annually in April. 

With distances of 1km, 2km, 3km and 5km, the Gold Coast’s premier ocean swim event, the Cooly Classic Ocean Swim, is another exciting endurance event to mark on your Gold Coast events calendar! With some of the region’s most famous surf breaks as your backdrop – including Snapper Rocks, Greenmount, Coolangatta and Kirra – this ocean swim is an exceptional event that provides an amazing opportunity to experience the beautiful, crystal clear waters of the Southern Gold Coast. The Cooly Classic 2.0 is the main event of the day and always attracts the most participants, while the 5km marathon distance swim is limited to 200 swimmers. 

Sunshine Coast endurance events

The Sunshine Coast more than holds its own when it comes to endurance events, with an action-packed events calendar that offers something for all age levels, abilities and event preferences. As the largest triathlon event in the world, the Noosa Triathlon is by far the most famous event on the coast and is held annually over five days around November.

While this world-class event attracts elite national and international competitors, there’s also a range of daily events for both juniors and adults in the lead-up to the main event on the 5th day which wraps up with the Festival Village Sunday Sesh, complete with live music and fireworks show.

If the Noosa Triathlon isn’t gruelling enough, there’s also the IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast in Mooloolaba to add to your endurance events calendar. Held in November and located in the heart of the Sunshine Coast, the event kicks off with a 1.9km swim at Mooloolaba Beach, followed by a 90km bike ride and then a 21.1km run.

Also held annually in Mooloolaba, the Mooloolaba Triathlon delivers a jam-packed weekend of festival fun for participants of all ages and abilities. The second-largest triathlon in Australia (after the Noosa Triathlon), the Mooloolaba Tri offers two events –  the Standard Distance Triathlon and the half-distance Sprint Triathlon. If ocean swims are more your thing, the Mooloolaba Mile Ocean Swim could be the perfect Sunshine Coast endurance event for you this year. With five categories (800m Junior Giants, 800m, 1.6km Mooloolaba Mile, 3km and Mooloolaba 5.0), this is the premier ocean swim on the Sunshine Coast and a great day out for all. 

Held in Landsborough at the base of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland annually in April, the TreX Cross Triathlon Series | Sunshine Coast involves navigating single track mountain bike trails, traversing gritty off road running trails and swimming the waters of the Ewen Maddock Dam. To ensure there’s a course for all ages and abilities, along with the standard distance course there are sprint, junior, dirt kids, duathlon and aquabike courses.

A little further into the Sunshine Coast Hinterland at Mapleton, the Blackall 100 is a magnificent trail running ultra-marathon that takes participants across the Blackall Range range with its varied landscapes, including subtropical rainforest and hinterland hamlets. As a qualifying event for the WSER (Western States Endurance Run) and Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the Blackall 100 attracts elite runners from across the globe.

North Queensland endurance events

With white beaches, crystal clear waters, and breathtaking mountainous geography, Tropical North Queensland provides the perfect setting and scenery for a variety of intensive endurance events. For ocean swimming events in paradise, place SwimAroundKeppel (SAK) on stunning Great Keppel Island at the top of your list. One of Australia’s longest swimming marathons with a total distance of 20 kilometres, SAK is now a two-day event that culminates with the signature 20-kilometre circumnavigation marathon swim on the second day.

While tropical Hamilton Island is best known for its exquisite crystal waters and pristine beaches, it’s also an endurance athlete’s paradise with the The Hamilton Island Endurance series spanning five endurance events from May through to November annually. There’s not only something here for everyone regardless of age or ability, there’s something here for everyone’s endurance event preference, with The Hamilton Half Marathon, Clash of the Paddles, Great Whitehaven Beach Run, Hamilton Island Triathlon and Whitehaven Beach Ocean Swim filling out Tropical North Queensland’s endurance events calendar. 

On the mainland, Cairns is home to one of the most recent additions to Queensland’s endurance events calendar, the 7 Cairns Marathon, which is now in its fourth year. Like most of the endurance events held across the state, this mid-year marathon festival features something for all ages, with 2km, 5km, 10km, half marathon and full marathon distance courses.

Cairns is more than a stunning location where world heritage-listed rainforest meets one of the natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef – it’s also home to one of Australia’s most physically demanding endurance events, the IRONMAN 70.3 Cairns. With the coastline from Cairns to Port Douglas delivering one of the most picturesque backdrops you’ll ever experience while participating in an endurance event, it should come as no surprise that it's known as the ‘Race in Paradise’.   

Another Tropical North Queensland endurance event with world-heritage listed scenery providing an exquisite backdrop, the Yungaburra Triathlon is the only freshwater triathlon of its size in Far North Queensland. Held on the Atherton Tablelands – which lies 750 metres above sea level – in April/May, this inclusive endurance event offers participants cooler temperatures and lower humidity than events of a comparable distance on the coast.

Outback Queensland endurance events

One of the most intensive endurance events in Queensland – and indeed all of Australia –  Goondiwindi’s Hell of the West Festival Weekend will host its 32nd year in 2023. The “toughest (and oldest) triathlon in Queensland”, HOTW is held in March and involves a 2km swim in the Macintyre River, an 80km “dead flat” cycle along the Barwon Highway heading west and 20 kilometre “hot as hell” run. An ultra-triathlon that’s on the bucket lists of triathletes worldwide, this gruelling endurance event is used by many as part of their Ironman training sessions. If you don’t want to participate alone, there’s also the option to compete as a team.