Contested over a 64.6km course, the event begins in Outram, on Huntly Rd near the intersection with Formby Rd.
The course encompasses Outram, East Taieri, West Taieri, Mosgiel, Three Mile Hill, Whare Flat and Silverstream areas and, although road closures have been advertised, organisers have emphasised delays may occur.
A section of Huntly Rd will be closed between 9am and 11.10am, and the main closures affect Three Mile Hill, Whare Flat, Silverstream Valley Rd and parts of Milners and Dukes Rds, between 11am and 3pm.
The event has attracted 102 teams from throughout the country to contest the seven-leg course.
Last year's champions, the University of Canterbury (men) and Pakuranga (women), have retained the nucleus of their teams and are expected to be strong contenders again.
The masters section is full of New Zealand's elite runners from the past 20 years, with the Wellington Scottish masters women's team including Anne Hare, Bernie Portenski and Melissa Moon.
There is also a sprinkling of past champions in the master's men's event in which Olympic and Commonwealth Games representative Robbie Johnston is running the anchor leg for Auckland University.
Former internationals David Rush (Leith) and Don Greig (Papanui Toc H) are also running anchor legs.
A name of interest in the Hamilton Hawks junior men's team is that of Mohammed Ali.
Should his team perform anything like his namesake, then the other 10 teams in this grade will have to perform beyond expectation.
Age-group events start at 9.30am.
The senior women's A grade starts at 10.10am and the senior men's A grade at 10.50am.
