As head of traffic management for the Dunedin marathon over the past 10 years, McDonald takes on a lot of responsibility.
"Accident or injury, I'm the fall guy. It's a huge responsibility, he said.
When McDonald (51) first took the job, it demanded months of preparation, surveying the course inch by inch and documenting every detail in preparation for DCC and Transit consents.
This year, Fulton Hogan offered its expertise and a computer-generated consent request to both authorities.
"They have made my job so much easier," he said.
McDonald still has hours of preparatory work around the course in the months leading up to race day.
This requires surveying and measuring the course and making alterations to it in order to accommodate safety, such as the concerns for the road around the new stadium, as well as the increasing density of traffic.
Before McDonald took his role with the organising committee, he contested the full marathon three times, recording times of 3hr 2min, 3hr 1min and 2hr 59min.
"In those days, we only had between 700 and 800 competitors. Now we're in excess of three times that. The job's not getting any easier."
McDonald begins race day at 6am overseeing and placing cones around the course, as well as checking all his marshalling is going to be in place.
He has more than 110 marshals on the course at any one time and, when planning for the event begins in February, it has him wondering.
"I think, `How am I going to find all these people?' Then with a month to go you have about half the numbers until somehow a few days before it seems to all come together. It just blows me away, really."
