Eliud Kipchoge has confirmed Melbourne as the third destination on his Eliud’s Running World tour, naming the Nike Melbourne Marathon on October 11, 2026 as his Oceania stop. Three marathons. Three continents. Five months. The schedule is taking shape fast.
Cape Town. Porto Alegre. Melbourne. Three down, four to go.
The Race
The Nike Melbourne Marathon starts on Batman Avenue — yes, really — and finishes inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of Australia’s most iconic sporting venues. It’s a course that runners have had strong feelings about for years, largely because of a climb at the 36-kilometer mark that tends to arrive at the worst possible moment.
That climb is gone. Race organizer Marcus Gale and his team have overhauled the course: 20 percent reduction in total elevation, the 36km climb removed, and fewer turns throughout. The result, Gale says, is a faster, cleaner race.
The prize purse stands at AUD $25,000 for the winner.
The Course Record Question
The current Melbourne course record is 2:09:12, set by Timothy Kiplagat Ronoh in 2022. It’s not a world-class benchmark — Kipchoge’s own world record is 2:01:09, set in Berlin in 2022 — but someone at the press conference decided to ask directly whether he’d go for it.
Kipchoge’s answer was brief: “I want to run a beautiful race.”
Gale’s answer was more specific. He pointed to the course changes — the elevation reduction, the removed climb, the cleaner routing — and suggested the record could be in reach, given the improvements.
It’s worth noting that Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in the unofficial Breaking2 project in 2019, and his legal personal best of 2:01:09 is the fastest marathon ever run. A 2:09:12 course record, on a course that’s just been made faster, would be well within range — if he’s going for it.
He said he wanted to run a beautiful race. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
The Trees
One of the more unexpected talking points at the press conference was environmental. The Nike Melbourne Marathon has partnered with Fifteen Trees to plant 5,000 trees in connection with the event — a project that aligns closely with the work of the Kipchoge Foundation.
Kipchoge has been vocal about his foundation’s environmental focus, and the partnership was clearly a point of genuine enthusiasm for both sides. His relationship with races tends to go beyond the finish line.
Three Continents, Four to Go
With Melbourne confirmed, Kipchoge now has three of seven legs locked in for the Eliud’s Running World tour. Africa (Cape Town, April), South America (Porto Alegre, July), and Oceania (Melbourne, October) are confirmed. Europe, North America, Asia, and Antarctica are still to come.
No dates yet for the remaining four stops, which are expected to fall in 2027. The full 2026 schedule is now set: three races, three continents.
Kipchoge has spent his career redefining what’s possible. This tour, continent by continent, looks like the final chapter of one of sport’s great stories — being written in real time.
