John Landreth and Ian McDonald have plenty on their plates at the Dunedin Marathon.
They are responsible for the layout of the course and will be on deck at 5am on September 13, setting out cones and barriers and markings for the race.
Later they will review their efforts and start planning for next year.
What many do not realise is that, aside from volunteering their time to work on course preparation and competitor safety, both men have had to battle life-threatening illnesses.
For Landreth (52), a self-employed plasterer and tiler, getting back to full health remains a challenge.
Two weeks after winning the masters 50 title at last year's Balclutha half-marathon, Landreth began vomiting.
He was advised to head to hospital and did so - twice - but a diagnosis could not be made.
He went to bed and woke the next morning with a paralysed face.
''So it was straight back to the GP and back to Accident and Emergency,'' he recalled.
''I got diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome - basically, facial palsy.''
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is similar to Bell's palsy but more severe.
Being self-employed, Landreth could not take sick leave, and his health continued to falter as the virus got into his cranial nerve.
''The virus could be compared to having shingles inside the head. It's called vestibular neuritus. It's certainly an interesting little thing.
''It led to numerous other ailments such as deafness, balance, eyes being stuck open and an inability to blink. It was very discomforting.''
Despite this, Landreth still forced himself to assist McDonald around the Dunedin Marathon course last year.
''He wasn't flash,'' McDonald said.
''He would cover one eye with a hand while virtually standing on one leg and hoisting up the cone on to the trailer with his free arm. It was quite a sight. But credit to him. We got the job done.''
Landreth is still troubled with some facial paralysis and balance issues, and thinks he is back to about 80%-90% health.
McDonald (56), a waterside worker, has had his own battles, stemming from a rough night in January 2012.
''I just woke up in the middle of the night and felt like throwing up,'' McDonald said.
''When I began throwing up blood, my wife thought she better ring the ambulance.''
Getting packed into an ambulance was the last thing McDonald remembers until being transferred by aircraft to Christchurch, which he thinks was two weeks later.
This was followed by a series of life-saving operations for chronic pancreatitis.
''They had me in an induced coma, so I have little knowledge at all of all the drama around me,'' McDonald said.
He had three major operations while in Christchurch Hospital. After one, his family was told to expect the worst.
''It was touch and go for a while. But basically I ended up with tubes in and out of me all over the place. I was basically fed through a tube for a couple, maybe three months.''
McDonald did not return to work until October 2012, and was on light duties until returning to full health almost a year later.
He has not lost his sense of humour.
He will still argue he is 33, and when asked what his weight was before he got sick, he admitted it was 84kg: ''It should have been 80kg.''
While his age stayed the same, his weight plummeted to 60kg during the illness.
A sign that McDonald was returning to full health was that in 2013 he was able to run the Motutapu Marathon, despite a dramatically slower time of 5hr 30min.
His best marathon time is 2hr 49min.
''I've been injured ever since,'' he joked.
