HILL 2 Harbour is no small feat and every year the 12-kilometre marathon attracts thousands of runners to take on a steep incline and test their limits as part of the Newcastle Running Festival.
As the sun came out to play on Sunday morning, 2200 runners gathered at Bar Beach to take on the challenge of Memorial Drive before heading down through King Edward park and past Newcastle beach.
Moving over to Nobbys Beach, around Fort Scratchley, Honeysuckle and finishing at Pat Jordan Oval in Carrington, the course offered some of Newcastle's most iconic sights.
Event director from H Events, Paul Humphreys, said this year had double the amount of people compared to last year.
"It's incredible. I was standing there and there was just a sea of people," he said.
Liam Dixon was the overall male winner of the 12-kilometre feat with a finish time of 37 minutes and 46 seconds.
Regina Jensen was the overall female winner with a finish time of 43 minutes and 48 seconds.
For those not wanting to sweat it out in the full-length run, a six-kilometre marathon took off from Queens Wharf at 9.30am and a two-kilometre fun run stepped off from 10.30am for the kids.
"The six-kilometre run is always a bit of a sideboard, but this year we had nearly 400 people in that this year and over 100 kids in the fun run," Mr Humphreys said.
"It was a pretty good atmosphere and the course is unreal," he said.
He said the Hill 2 Harbour was a "cool concept, because it's exactly that".
"We run up a big hill and then we literally run around the whole harbour and get to see iconic sights of Newcastle."
