Wollongong Running Festival encourages runners of all abilities to band together and embrace the run club culture that is seeped within the Illawarra region.
The festival’s yearly run is a celebration of fitness and community that has many locals have been training for.
Wollongong sports store, Run Havoc, is sponsoring the event, and assistant manager Issac Shaw said the Illawarra area has seen a surge in run clubs attending.
“Shellharbour has a bunch of different clubs, Wollongong’s got clubs, its really sort of increasing that reign boom then it already is,” Mr Shaw said.
“Theres a major social aspect where it allows for people to do half marathons and marathons in a big group.”
In recent years, a shift in club representation has seen a 124 per cent increase in festival registered clubs.
Registration data shows a rapid growth in local running communities with a record-breaking attendance of over 3,000 participants in 2025.
UOW Run Club president Leah Heaton said she is excited to connect with more like-minded people from other clubs.
“Honestly so empowering being out there amongst all these different clubs,” Ms Heaton said.
“We’re all out there, just trying to get fit, get active and it’s just really cool to see so many people from a diverse background, groups, age.”
In 2025, AUSPLAY saw over a million people engaging in forms of physical fitness through programs such as recreational clubs.
Ages 18-24 and 25-34 were the highest attendees, with a combined total of 619,714 runners.
Trends show the Wollongong Running Festival fosters younger to middle-aged demographics with local gym clubs as well as UOW’s own run club.
“I think it’s that real commodity around being out there together and having a real support system to get you through those really tough races,” Ms Heaton said.
Mr Shaw said that he hopes club and team runs within the festival will continue to grow for the future years.
“I think they are only going to grow, there’s definitely an opportunity to grow the club aspect of it whether that be relay events or team events. Having a club aspect adds to it,” Mr Shaw said.
The event is currently at 85 per cent full capacity and starts on Sunday June 7th at 6:45am AEST beginning with a 10km race.
