From 1,300 Runners to the World Stage: 10 Lessons from Wayne Larden

I recently sat down with Wayne Larden — CEO of the TCS Sydney Marathon, the seventh Abbott World Marathon Major, and one of the most compelling stories in our entire sport. Wayne grew up in Mount Druitt, a public housing estate in Western Sydney, where running literally pulled him away from a dangerous path and showed him what life could offer. He ran a 2:16 marathon debut. Then injuries ended his elite career. Then he took over a struggling race with 1,300 finishers in 2005 and spent twenty years building it into the newest Abbott World Marathon Major. Here are the 10 lessons that stayed with me most.

Vision & Patience

Don't try to be the biggest — try to be the best and the most fun

Wayne's guiding philosophy for the TCS Sydney Marathon is deceptively simple: he doesn't want to be the biggest. He wants to be the best and the most fun. Sydney could technically jump to 55,000 runners right now. The capacity is there. The demand is there. Wayne won't do it.

"You only have to get it wrong once to really alienate an audience. We want to make sure we can digest the growth so that it doesn't impact participant experience. We don't need to be the biggest for the sake of being the biggest. We want to be the best and the most fun."

That philosophy extends beyond race day. When Wayne says "most fun," he means from the moment runners step off the plane to the moment they leave — the restaurants, the run clubs, the harbour, the locals, the culture. The race is the anchor, but the experience is the whole trip.

→Resist the pressure to grow faster than your operational foundation can support. One bad experience at scale does more damage than years of good ones at a smaller size.

Origin & Obligation

Running saved his life — and that created an obligation to give it back

Wayne's backstory is one of the most powerful origin stories I've heard on this podcast. Growing up in Mount Druitt — a public housing estate in Western Sydney, 85% low-income — he was starting to go wayward as a teenager when a school teacher pulled him aside and told him to focus on his sport. He channeled his anger into running. He started winning. He started traveling. He started seeing what the world could offer.

"Running has shown me what life could offer. My life could have gone in two very different directions. And I feel as a more mature adult now that I have an obligation to put back into the sport that helped shape my life."

That obligation manifested immediately when he took over the Sydney Marathon in 2005. The first thing he did was add a family 5K fun run — something kids in prams could participate in — because he wanted the community to experience running the way he had. That family event still exists today, and he says it will remain forever.

→What brought you to this sport? Whatever that answer is, it's probably also the most important thing you can offer the person who hasn't found running yet. Design for them.

Long-term Thinking

It took 18 years of patient foundation-building before the rocket launched

In 2005, Wayne inherited a race with 1,300 marathon finishers at risk of losing its government license. He spent 18 years slowly building the foundations — changing the course, shifting the finish to the Opera House, renaming the event the "Sydney Running Festival" to reduce intimidation, adding the family run, honing in on the harbour and city brand. Growth was slow. Then COVID changed the running culture. Then the Abbott World Marathon Majors candidacy was announced. Then Kipchoge and Hassan ran Sydney. 123,000 ballot applications followed.

"It was 18 years to grow it from 1,200 to 5,000. And then three years to grow it to 33,000 — and this year will be 40,000. It was a long, slow burn where we were patiently building the foundations and reputation. Nearly 20 years of preparation to be in a position to take on the candidacy."

The lesson isn't that slow growth is always right. It's that the years of unglamorous foundation-building created the credibility, the relationships, and the operational capability to handle the explosive growth when it came.

→What foundation are you laying right now that will matter in 10 years? The work that feels invisible today is the work that makes the rocket launch possible.

Branding

Sometimes the name of your race is scaring people away

One of the most counterintuitive moves Wayne made early on: he changed the name of the Sydney Marathon to the Sydney Running Festival. Why? Because research showed that ordinary runners — people who ran half marathons and 10Ks — weren't even looking at the event. They saw the word "marathon" in the name and assumed it wasn't for them.

"I'm not a marathon runner, so I don't even look at that. The name was scaring people off. So we changed it to the Sydney Running Festival and highlighted the different events. Immediately we started to get growth because more people were looking at our communications — because it was relevant to them now."

It took 18 years before he felt confident enough to rename it the Sydney Marathon — once the culture had caught up and people understood that a marathon event is for everyone, not just marathon runners. The name followed the culture. Not the other way around.

→Read your event's name, tagline, and marketing through the eyes of someone who has never considered running a race. What does it say to them? What does it exclude?

Inclusivity

Jasmine's run club — what true community accessibility looks like in practice

Wayne told a story that I've been thinking about ever since. Jasmine — a Muslim woman from Western Sydney — came to a Sydney Marathon run club and was welcomed. But she noticed there were no other Muslim women there. Running wasn't culturally common in her community. So she established the Sydney Muslim Run Club, supported by the Sydney Marathon's run club partner program — which pays for club leaders to get coaching accreditation so they actually know what they're doing.

"She wanted to make an impact within her community and create an environment where other Muslim women felt comfortable. That run club has grown incredibly. That's just one example of facilitating accessibility across cultural groups. And each run club attracts a slightly different audience — that diversity is something we actively encourage."

Wayne's We Run Foundation takes this further: free coaching accreditation for run club leaders, free entries for kids and families who can't afford to participate, and a dedicated First Nations strategy with real investment to help indigenous communities access the sport.

→Who in your community is currently not represented on your start line? Identify one specific group and ask: what would genuinely welcoming them look like — not just accepting them, but actively making space?

Stakeholder Relations

Listening is the most underrated skill in event management

When Wayne took over the Sydney Marathon, it was at risk of losing its government license. The event wasn't delivering on expectations. The impact on motorists was causing political friction. His approach wasn't to fight for what he wanted — it was to genuinely listen to what everyone else needed and find solutions that worked for multiple parties.

"Trying to muscle your way into anywhere is going to get you pushback most of the time. Listening is a really important skill in event management — because there are potential roadblocks everywhere if you don't get that right. We came in and listened, and over time you get a reputation for an honest, friendly organisation that actually delivers what it says it will. That's how you build support within government."

He watched Brussels lose its permit after 20 years and named it as the cautionary tale every race director should study. The license to operate in a city is not a given. It's a relationship that has to be earned and maintained over time.

→When did you last sit down with a city or government stakeholder — not to ask for something, but just to listen? Schedule that meeting. The relationship you build in quiet times is the one that protects you in hard ones.

Elite Strategy

Bringing Kipchoge and Hassan wasn't just a marquee moment — it was a crowd-building strategy

Wayne was transparent about the strategic thinking behind landing Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan for Sydney's first official Abbott World Marathon Major in 2025. It wasn't just prestige. It was a calculated play to build spectator numbers and community awareness in a city that hadn't yet developed a marathon culture.

"From the moment they stepped off the plane, Australian media would be all over them. And the reason that was important is because we needed everyone in Sydney to know that the TCS Sydney Marathon is on this Sunday and the greatest marathon names of all time are running through our streets. We needed to grow the spectator numbers. We needed to build that atmosphere on the sidelines."

It worked. Spectator numbers in 2025 were dramatically higher than 2024. Wayne believes Australians, once they show up once, will keep showing up. The elite field was the hook that got them out the first time.

→Think about your elite strategy not just as a performance product but as a community awareness and spectator tool. Who on your start line will make non-runners want to come and watch?

Run Clubs

Run clubs changed from training groups to social communities — and that changed everything

Wayne described the transformation of Australian running culture post-COVID with unusual precision. Before COVID, Australia had runners but no marathon culture. The biggest marathon was Melbourne with 7,000 finishers. Then COVID hit. People started running from home. Run clubs emerged. And crucially — they were different from anything that had existed before.

"Where run clubs were really great and the reason for their success is that it went from training for something to a social activity, with fitness as a part of that and running as the key element. They go to the bar after. They have coffee. They interact with their communities and make it fun. That is completely different to what we had before COVID."

Wayne's response: build infrastructure around them. The We Run Foundation provides free coaching accreditation for run club leaders. Sydney has a formal run club partner program. Because he understands — run clubs are the front door to the sport, and the quality of that front door determines who walks through it.

→Do you have a formal run club program? If not, identify your five most active local run clubs and reach out this month. They are recruiting runners for you — whether you support them or not.

Resilience

Your body will let you do what it's meant to do — and accepting that is the beginning of wisdom

Wayne ran a 2:16 marathon debut. He had the talent to go much further. Then injuries kept knocking the bricks off the top of his foundation, and he never reached the level he dreamed of. For years, that was a source of deep disappointment. Eventually, he found a different way to hold it.

"What I now realize is that your body's gonna let you do what it's meant to do and nothing more. What that meant for me was that when I got up to 200 to 220 kilometers a week, I kept getting injured. And I realized — I actually did the best I could do. And what that made me realize was that I should just be happy with what I did. And I am."

That acceptance opened up everything else. The career in event management. The dream job he would never trade. The opportunity to take a struggling race and build it into a World Major. The injuries that ended one chapter made the next one possible.

→Where in your professional or personal life are you still measuring yourself against something you didn't achieve? Wayne's reframe is worth sitting with: you did the best you could do. That might be enough to move forward.

Community

Running's transformative power has a ripple effect — and most runners don't realize they're causing it

Wayne's closing philosophy is one that I think the whole industry needs to talk about more. Most people come to running for themselves — to get fit, to have social interactions, to find a community. That's valid. But what they don't realize is that their commitment to something positive has a ripple effect on everyone around them.

"You running and becoming committed to something that's positive, something that changes you, makes you happier, fitter, healthier — that has a ripple effect on the people around you as well. You can motivate other people to run. You can support them changing their lives. People don't realise that. That's the sort of thing we're trying to encourage — that they can have a positive impact on people they know. And then this snowballs."

Connected communities are Wayne's North Star. Not podium finishes. Not ballot numbers. Not world records. People from all backgrounds, running hand in hand, benefiting from the transformative power of movement, inspiring each other in ways they may not even see.

→How does your race tell the ripple effect story? The runner who inspired their partner, their child, their colleague — those stories are in your community right now. Find them and tell them.

"The future of running is connected communities — people from all backgrounds, running hand in hand."

Wayne's closing words — and a vision that started in a public housing estate in Western Sydney, where one school teacher pulled a wayward kid aside and told him to focus on his sport. Everything else followed from that moment.