The Motatapu event will take place today over the hills between Wānaka and Queenstown and for perhaps the first time there are more runners lining up than bikers.
About 2600 competitors will compete in the event, which is down from the more popular days where 4000 entered, but it was still a respectable amount.
Entries were about the same as last year.
With many long-running events forced to pull the pin in the face of a tough economic climate this summer, Motatapu race director and co-owner Gemma Peskett said she and her team were grateful to still be able to go ahead with their event.
The event started in 2005 and offers access to three high-country stations which only open one day a year specifically for this event.
Invercargill’s John Fry has competed in every Motatapu marathon.
His daughter, Ella, “just casually decided to run the marathon” with him in 2023 and she ended up winning the open women’s category, following in the footsteps of her mum, Leanne Durry, who claimed the inaugural title in 2005.
There are six events: the 52km ultra run, the trail marathon, the 47km mountain bike, the 47km e-bike mountain bike, the 15km miners trail and the 4km junior run.
Former Olympic and Commonwealth Games cycling medalist Eddie Dawkins is entered in the 52km ultra run.
Youngster Levi Gear, from Orewa, who finished third in the 47km mountain bike race last year, is set to line up again.
There are slightly more runners than bikers.
There are 1100 cyclists, including more than than 250 e-bikers.
There are more than 1300 runners in the three running events — miners' trial, marathon and ultra run.
There are also more than 200 children in the "kids’ trial run".
Running has become more popular of late in many events across the country and Motatapu is following that trend.
Also becoming popular is the use of e-bikes in an endurance event.
There is a category for those on their e-bikes who want to be serious — other e-bikers just want to go for a leisurely bike ride.
Organisers said the e-bike category at Motatapu was just following a trend from other parts of New Zealand and overseas where e-bikers races took place
The record on a regular bike for the 47km ride was 1hr 47min 53sec. Last year an e-biker covered the same route in 1hr 52min 16sec.
