Great Australian Run

The 2009 Great Australian Run is set to be a weekend of sporting fun and excellence. Building on last year's success, new features have been added to the 2009 program including junior and family runs, wheelchair racing and a corporate challenge.

This year the main race will incorporate Athletics Australia’s national road running championships.

For all you footy fans out there, the first 30 male and first 30 female finishers for each club will have their times averaged out to determine the team with the fittest footy fans. In 2008 Collingwood fans won the day - can they be knocked off the top in 2009? (Select your favourite AFL team when you enter.)

The run starts and finishes in Albert Park and is 15km in distance, taking in some of Melbourne’s most famous landmarks and sights - Flinders St Station, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Arts Centre and St Kilda Road. The event is open to runners and walkers of all abilities, with an elite field made up of some of the best runners in the world.
 
Event timetable (provisional)

08:35    Great Australian Run elite women

08:50    Great Australian Run elite men

08:50    Great Australian Run mass start

The Great Australian Run will be broadcast live on Channel 10 from 8:30am-10:00am and on OneHD from 10:00am-10:30am, and will later feature in broadcasts across the world, including Asia and Europe. So set the record button, slip on those trainers and join the thousands of runners pounding the streets of Melbourne.
 
A new addition: Saturday, November 28
A fantastic new addition to this year’s Great Australian Run will see a Saturday program of events taking place in Albert Park. (Times listed below are provisional)

09:00 Great Australian Wheelchair 5km - A joint race for both wheelchair and hand cycle athletes open to entrants of all abilities and ages. In this exciting new addition participants will use the F1 Grand Prix circuit within Albert Park on what is possibly the finest road surface in Australia.

09:30 – 10:00 Junior Great Australian Run - Boys and girls (ages 11-14 years) line up on the F1 start grid ready to feel the buzz of running the 5km F1 circuit - on the green light... go go go!

11:00 Great Australian Family Run – the Great Australian Run weekend has something for everyone and the 2km family run will see minis aged three-10 years running with mums and dads around the race village and finishing in pit lane.

For more info on all the events detailed above visit the official website