The City2Surf has been held as an annual event since the first run on 5 September 1971, initially as a run that commenced in
George Street, adjacent to
Sydney Town Hall. It was conceived by the staff of
The Sun newspaper and was inspired by the
Bay to Breakers event in San Francisco. The first event was jointly organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of NSW and the NSW Women's Amateur Athletic Association and attracted 1,576 starters, 1,509 of whom completed the event within the 100 minutes time limit. Many of the entrants were registered athletes belonging to the Registered Athletic Clubs that were part of these two bodies. To date, 24 of those entrants, now known as the City2Surf Legends, have run in every City2Surf. When
The Sun ceased publication in 1988, the sponsorship of the event passed to the new Sunday tabloid
The Sun-Herald.
Voltaren, an Australian brand of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, took over sponsorship in 2025. In 2010, on the event's 40th anniversary, a record 80,000 participants ran, making it the largest run of its kind in the world. Marwa was competing in the
2008 Olympics. Since 2010 the course has started in several groups to give preference to faster runners. The first group to start are elite wheelchair athletes, In 2021, Sydney had been in another lockdown since June, the physical race was cancelled again and another virtual event scheduled for October. 14 August 2022 saw the return of the live running of the event for the first time since 2019. ==Route==