Why do you run?
It’s a question that can set off a chain reaction when you throw it into a group of runners. Every shape, size, and fitness level has a theory. Some fire back straight away, like they’ve been waiting all week for someone to ask. Others pause, tilt their heads, and squint into the middle distance as if the answer might appear on the horizon. I’ve asked it more times than I can count, and I never get tired of the variety of the replies.
“I want to lose weight.”
“I want to see what I’m capable of.”
“I want to raise money for cancer research.”
“I want to prove my mates wrong.”
Or sometimes it’s simpler than that. “I don’t know. It just seemed like a good idea after a few Friday night beers with Jacko.”
There are as many reasons to run as there are runners. Some chase speed. Others chase peace. Some run to forget, while others run to remember. For many, it’s a fight against time, gravity, or the softening that comes with comfort. But for all of us, at one point or another, the real battle isn’t with the road or the hill or the distance. It’s with those few centimetres between the ears.
When I started writing Great Running Events, I wanted to do more than just list races or showcase beautiful courses. I wanted to explore what makes people push themselves across hundreds of kilometres, through mud, heat, rain, and exhaustion, only to sign up and do it again. I wanted to understand the spirit that drives someone to keep moving when everything in their body tells them to stop.
Running, to me, is the purest expression of community. Think about it. How many other sports let the world’s elite compete on the exact same course, at the exact same time, as those of us who will never win more than a sponge cake in a school raffle? We may all have our own goals, times, and motivations, but when we step onto the course, we move as one human force. It is heart-warming, humbling, and something I never tire of witnessing.
Great Running Events isn’t a “best of” guide to Australia’s races. It’s an introduction to what’s out there. It’s an invitation to discover how vast, beautiful, and punishing our country can be when you travel it on foot. Along the way, I’ve included personal and emotional stories from people whose lives have been shaped or transformed by running. Their honesty and courage gave this book its heartbeat.
Through these stories, I’ve come to see that running reveals far more than physical endurance. It exposes character. It strips away pretence. It reconnects us to the land in a way that modern life rarely allows. From the red heart of central Australia to the windswept cliffs of the Great Ocean Road, from the misty trails of the Blue Mountains to the lonely tracks of Western Australia, every event offers a new landscape and a new lesson. These are journeys that change people.
And then there are the urban runs, no less inspiring. The Melbourne Marathon finishes on the hallowed turf of the MCG, a place where dreams and sweat have mingled for generations. In Sydney, thousands of runners surge across the Harbour Bridge, a river of colour and energy flowing toward the Opera House. On the Gold Coast, ocean views line the course, and the rising sun catches the moving tide of runners as they chase personal bests or simply the joy of finishing.
Running, for me, is about all of this. It’s about challenge, connection, and community. It’s about testing limits, then discovering there really aren’t any. And it’s about the quiet moments too, when your breath and your footsteps find the same rhythm, and for a few fleeting seconds, everything feels right with the world.
That is what Great Running Events is all about.
Great Running Events By James Knight is published by Rockpool Publishers available from October 2025,
Featured Image by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash
Lower image: by Steward Masweneng on Unsplash
