The Australian Outback Marathon was an event conceived by Mari-Mar Walton, the founder and Managing Director of Travelling Fit, after visiting Uluru for the first time in 2004 with her husband Michael.
Mari-Mar had previously taken part in adventure races around the world and she wanted to bring the concept of an “all inclusive, fully hosted” Marathon holiday to Australia.
After six years of planning, gaining permissions and working out the logistics of putting on an event such as this in the middle of the desert, the inaugural Australian Outback Marathon took place with 187 runners on 31st July 2010, growing to over 500 participants every year since 2017.
Mari-Mar and Michael also enjoy looking after their teenage children, Emma and Henry.
2012 was a milestone year for the Australian Outback Marathon as we started liaising with some of the local schools in the area to provide free entries to the event for up to 60 indigenous school children and their teachers.
The program, put together with the amazing support of the Indigenous Land Corporation and the Ayers Rock Resort, means that 3 schools get to send 20 representatives each to the Ayers Rock Resort every year for a completely free, fully hosted weekend.
In addition to the 3 schools involved, the decision was also made to invite, completely free of charge, all the children from the local Yulara Primary school.
It was also the year we switched from manual timing to using bibs with an inbuilt timing chip – something that we have done every year since.
The Australian Outback Marathon was growing from strength to strength, appearing on many “world’s best” lists and also featuring as the cover event on the book “Worlds Top 50 Marathons Worth Travelling For”. Quite an achieving for a race that was only 6 years old.
This led to 2017 being the biggest race yet, with participants growing from 174 in 2010 to 554 participants in 2017.
We also started using finishing line video for the first time and included these video’s as part of the overall photography package that every participants gets for free when they enter the race. This means that every finisher, no matter the event, gets to see themself finish the event
Our largest field every saw 609 participants line up at the start, and also saw the entire event completely sold out 3 months ahead of time.
It was also the 10th anniversary of the race which made race day even more special, and we had a number of participants come and join us who had participated in the very first race,
2019 saw a record 242 finishers in just the Marathon alone – more than the combined number of participants, spectators, crew, medical personnel and volunteers in the very first event.
2021 was a very strange year for the Australian Outback Marathon. After being forced to cancel the event in 2020 (the less said about that the better), we were all set for a bumper 2021. Then, 3 weeks before race day, rolling border closures and a huge amount of uncertainty as to whether or not the event would be able to go ahead hit us hard.
Eventually, 189 participants , mainly from Brisbane but with 30 brave individuals who travelled from Melbourne, came to the Ayers Rock Resort for what proved to be a memorable few days of fun and running. We were almost the only people there so the atmosphere was extremely festive.
Mari-Mar has been a runner since 1996 when she and a friend entered the City to Surf in Sydney on a whim. She loved the experience and since then has run well in excess of 50 Marathons and Ultra-Marathons all around the world, including all of the Marathon Majors, gaining her “Six Star Medal” in 2019 in Boston. Her list of Marathons also includes races in many diverse locations, including France, China, Greenland, Iceland, the Tibetan Plateau, Singapore, Greece, South Africa and Brazil as well as many Marathons in Australia. Most recently she was in Bordeaux for the Marathon du Medoc.
Mari-Mar is also an accomplished Ultra-Marathon runner, having completed the Comrades Marathon on 3 occasions, the Marathon des Sables across the Moroccan Sahara seven times (and counting) and the Hida Takyama 78km race in Japan. She has also been the first female across the line in the Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker 100km event.
Michael came to running and Marathon running relatively late, completing his first 42.195km race in 2001 at the tender age of 35. He has since gone on to finish 12 events all around the world, as well as many Half-Marathons and shorter distances. Most recently he completed the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON.
Michael has an IT background, working as a database designer for a major law firm. He resigned his position in 2009 to concentrate fully on making the Australian Outback Marathon the best event it could be, bringing his passion for logistics and running together, allowing him to ensure that all the small details that make the Australian Outback Marathon so special are taken care of.
Travelling Fit started as an idea in 1998 when Mari-Mar wanted to travel to London to run the Marathon but couldn’t find a travel agency with the appropriate level of knowledge to assist her in planning the trip. Having worked in the Travel Industry for most of her adult life Mari-Mar decided to create her own company and in the process also created an industry in Australia where none had existed before.
Travelling Fit has since grown to become Australia’s only travel company dedicated specifically to the needs of runners and the wider running community, taking thousands of runners overseas every year to participate in some of the world’s greatest races, both big and small. Travelling Fit are also the only travel company in Australia offering guaranteed entries to all six of the World Marathon Majors (Tokyo, London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York).
All the staff at Travelling Fit know what it takes to participate in and finish a Marathon, all from first-hand experience, and with running as a passion and not just a job, the company’s core mission to “always put the runner first” is evident in everything they do.
