Fuel for Gold Coast

This Gold Coast Marathon weekend, New Balance and Tempo have teamed up to give the people what they need: carbs, pizza, carbs, liquid refreshments, pizza, carbohydrates, pizza, carbs. Plus a supersized side order of community and celebration. All for free.

We’ve got together with popular local establishment Franc Jrs Famous Pizzeria’s to take over their Nobbys Arcade location from Friday till Sunday. As part of New Balance’s goal of supporting run clubs over marathon weekend, they got things going on Friday with a sunset shakeout run for the SoSo’s and Unofficial run clubs. Around 100 runners donned limited-edition t-shirts emblazoned with a very cool (if we may say so) running-pizza-slice character before setting off from the pizzeria. After the run, everyone piled into Franc Jrs for a sustaining meal before a good night’s rest.

The shakeout was also the first chance for many people to catch a glimpse of the new cyber jade colourway for the FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4, which dropped on Monday. New Balance’s top-flight carbon-plated race shoe, the SC Elite gives long-distance runners the edge to bring home a PB, and Gold Coast’s flat course is just the place to do it!

To give the running community a chance to experience the SC Elite ride, New Balance sent pairs out to selected ambassadors from a range of crews, with these ambassadors also asked to nominate other runners from their group – those who exemplify the club spirit and show up no matter what – to receive a pair. A flash of bright jade on the course is the IYKYK signal.

Today, on Saturday, we celebrated everyone who ran the half marathon – and we served hot pizza to loads more crews and individual runners. By reaching out to run clubs across Australia, New Balance and Tempo wanted to nourish the folks putting in the work for our great running community, and we’re so grateful for the huge response we’ve had. So many of the crews that are powering running’s renaissance in Australia came through. We’ve had Gold Coast Run Co, 445 Run Club (Auckland and Gold Coast), AM:PM.RC, Byron Run Club, Coogee Run Club, The Early Ones, Hunter Athletics, Kic, Kings Cross Track Club, RunAsOne, Run Clubby, Run South Yarra, SoSo’s, Unofficial and more.

Joel Hanlon, New Balance’s head of marketing for Australia and New Zealand, says the brand is responding to an identified consumer need: runners consistently say that, especially in an unfamiliar town, they could use some help with their all-important pre-race fuelling.

“Through our work with local run clubs we know how difficult it can be to find good spots to carb load before the big race. By offering free pizza to runners we aim to provide a unique opportunity for them to prepare, connect with their communities and, hopefully, help fuel a few PBs across the weekend," Hanlon says.

As well as the invited crews, on both weekend days anyone with a registration or starter’s bib for any of the Gold Coast Marathon events has been able to rock up to the takeaway window for a free slice (noon–2pm if you’re coming on Sunday) or try their luck at a walk-in table.

Tomorrow, Sunday morning, is go time for all marathon entrants. After that, New Balance, Tempo and the Franc Jrs crew will again fire up the ovens to offer all runners a well-deserved celebratory slice accompanied by good times into the afternoon.

“We know every runner will leave 100% out there on the course,” Hanlon says. “After that, we’ll be at Franc Jrs till 4pm so that everyone can dig into a post-race pizza, share the buzz and relive the run over a slice.”

From Tempo and New Balance, we wish every runner the very best this Gold Coast Marathon weekend. Run your best possible race, and run it your way.

Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy these scenes from our Franc Jrs takeover.