Melbourne Marathon 2026: Expo, Bib Pickup and Start Line Tips

Race week for the Melbourne Marathon is mostly logistics, and the 2026 edition changes a few of the usual answers: a 6:15am start, bib collection that wraps up the day before the gun, and a new two-day festival format. The finish hasn't moved, though. It's still a lap of the Melbourne Cricket Ground turf, as it has been since 2007. Here's what to sort before you get there.

Quick answer:

• Sunday 11 October 2026. The marathon starts at 6:15am on Batman Avenue and finishes inside the MCG.
• Entry is $235 for Australian residents and $295 for international entrants, race bib included. You need to be 18 or older on race day.
• Collect your bib at the MCG, Thursday to Saturday of race week. Bring your confirmation email and QR code, or a form of ID.
• The cut-off is 7 hours 45 minutes gun time, with the MCG course entry closing at 2:00pm.

What's different in 2026

The Melbourne Marathon has been run every year since 1978, usually on the second Sunday of October, and 2026 keeps the slot: Sunday 11 October.

Last year's festival set the current attendance record when a record 50,000 runners crossed the finish line, 8,000 clear of the mark that stood before. 14,500 of them finished the marathon itself. Melbourne's Jack Rayner made it two wins in a row, running 2:15:02.

The organiser is calling 2026 its most significant transformation in two decades: redesigned courses, improved amenities, better spectator flow, and a two-day format across Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October. The marathon itself stays on the Sunday. One piece of the new program is already gone: the Pacesetters evening with Eliud Kipchoge, on Friday 9 October, is sold out.

Getting in: fees and entry routes

Entry to the marathon costs $235 for Australian residents and $295 for international entrants, and both cover the race bib and safety pins. You'll need to be 18 or older on race day.

If you haven't entered yet, the organiser says guaranteed entry options are still available. Charity is the other route worth knowing: the Mark Hughes Foundation runs a team for this event where you take on the 5km, 10km, 21.1km or 42.2km, solo or with a crew, and fundraise as you go.

Bib pickup and the Runners Expo

Bib collection runs Thursday to Saturday of race week at the MCG, which makes Saturday your last chance. Bring your confirmation email and show the QR code, or bring a form of identification. If you can't make it yourself, a friend or relative can collect your bib with a copy of your registration confirmation.

Pickup happens at the Runners Expo, which sets up on the MCG's external concourse between Gates 2 and 3. The expo is back for 2026 and opens Wednesday 7 October, with running, fitness, nutrition and recovery brands filling the concourse. If you're collecting a bib anyway, it's worth the walk through. If you're after a shakeout run as well, VPA is running its Melbourne Marathon shakeout run for 2026.

The course

The 42.195km course is predominantly flat, and the organiser pitches it as a PB course for exactly that reason. From Batman Avenue it runs around Albert Park Lake, past Flinders Street Station and along the St Kilda beach foreshore, skirting the Botanic Gardens on the way. Then comes the part people remember: the finish line inside the MCG, with a lap of the turf to close it out.

Race morning: the start and the clock

The gun goes at 6:15am on Batman Avenue, fifteen minutes earlier than last year's 6:30am start. The start itself takes time: the organiser expects up to 25 minutes to process the field, so if you're lined up towards the back, plan on running about 7 hours 20 minutes on net time.

The official cut-off is 7 hours 45 minutes on gun time, and every runner needs to reach the MCG course entry by 2:00pm. Intermediate cut-offs also sit along the course, because the roads have to reopen on schedule. Treat the cut-off as a ceiling, not a target.

The light you'll actually run in

A 6:15am start and a 2:00pm cut-off bookend nearly eight hours of light that keeps changing. The light at the start line is nothing like the light at midday, and you'll run through a good chunk of that change wherever you finish.

One disclosure, since we make running sunglasses: this is the window Re. builds for. The range runs four lens systems so you can match the lens to the light you actually run in.

For the dark-to-bright shift a 6:15am start brings, the Adaptor is the practical first choice. It's photochromic, darkening automatically as the sun rises and going near-clear before dawn, so it transitions with you whether you're crossing early or grinding through to the cut-off. The Adaptor is $180 across all Re. frames.

If you want photochromic and polarised in the same lens, with an anti-fog coating for the cool-air, high-output start, the Infinity covers all of that. Polarisation strips reflected glare off the Yarra foreshore and any wet road; the photochromic layer handles the dark-to-bright shift; the anti-fog coating helps stop condensation forming when you're generating heat and the morning air is still cold. Infinity is $220.

For runners in earlier waves who'll spend most of the race in full morning sun, the Purity is a polarised lens with a Revo coating, built for stable, bright conditions with good contrast and high clarity, also $220.

Fit matters more the longer you're out there. Re. frames carry their weight balanced over your ears rather than your nose, and the nose bridge grip holds firmer as you sweat. Frames are vented, and every lens in the range is UV400.

If you're sorting kit before race day, every pair comes with a 30-day run guarantee: take them for a run and change your mind, even if you've already worn them. Shipping is free over $150 and the range runs from $180 to $240.