Competitors in the 10km, half marathon and full marathon will all leave from the Kilmore St start-finish area together at 9am.
About 500 will take part in the full marathon in a total field of more than 4500.
Ferguson (44), a Dunedin patternmaker, is mindful of running at what he considers a sensible pace.
Ferguson has run with considerable success over the past two decades.
His marathon career started on the 100-year-old Riverton to Invercargill course, with mixed success.
But it has been the Buller Gorge and Dunedin marathons in which he has prospered.
He won the Buller event outright in 1995 in 2hrs 32min, and although he won the senior title again in 1996, finished second to "a wily old veteran from Auckland".
He won the first of three Otago Marathon titles on the Moro course in 1997, for his best time on the course of 2hrs 29min 5sec.
"It was a shocker that day," he said.
"We had to run into a strong southwest wind for the first 25km, with horizontal rain."
Although Ferguson has contested the half marathon section of the Christchurch event five times for a personal best of 67min 56sec, his attempt tomorrow will be his first in the full marathon. "I'm looking to going into the race with a cool head and not get sucked in by pace of the shorter distance runners," he said.
"It's all about knowing your ability and sticking to it."
A feature of Ferguson's build-up has been his first attempt at following a Lydiard programme.
"It's got me where I am at the moment," he said.
Aside from his marathon success, Ferguson won the masters title at the New Zealand mountain running championships last year and went on to finish 17th in his age group at the world mountain running championships in Austria.
His strength on the hills has also helped him finish fourth overall and win the masters section of the Kepler Challenge for the past two years.
His best time for the 62km event is 5hrs 23sec.
During the past 18 months, he has been in superb form in track events, breaking the Otago 40-44 age-group 5000m record three times.
His best performance came in February this year when he recorded 15min 30sec for the distance, while just before Christmas he broke the Otago age-group record in the 3000m, recording 9min 4sec.
He is also the Otago masters champion in cross-country and the 10km road race.
Other runners from Dunedin may also feature tomorrow.
Sue Cuthbert will be looking to improve on last year's sixth place in the women's section of the marathon, and in the half marathon section, Shireen Crumpton and Luke Hurring are among early favourites.
In the associated 10km, Courtney Quirin will be aiming to leave New Zealand on a high note and finish her final race in New Zealand with a gold-medal performance.
Quirin has been a part of the Otago athletics scene for the past two years and her departure back to the United States toward the end of next month, will surely leave a void on the local scene.
