The event is set to be raced on September 11 — the first time in three years it has been run.
Like so many other events in the past couple of years, Covid-19 has had a big impact.
The marathon was cancelled early in 2020 when the country went into lockdown in late March and with too much uncertainty, it was cancelled shortly afterwards, despite the event not set to be run until September.
Last year, the event was set to be run first in September but was then pushed back to November. Restrictions on numbers for gatherings eventually led to it being scrapped.
But with fewer restrictions this year the event is full steam ahead and is just over six weeks away.
Dunedin Marathon organising committee chairwoman Maria Sleeman said about 1200 people had registered for the marathon and organisers were hoping to hit 2000 entries.
At the same stage in 2019, there had been slightly more entries but they were ahead of where they were for last year’s canned event.
Most of the entries were from Dunedin competitors but there was also interest from Auckland, Wellington and Wanaka.
The Dunedin Marathon was a good lead-up to the Queenstown Marathon in November.
There is a full marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km races with walking options also available.
She said about 550 people had entered for the half marathon run. Many people had wanted to get back into an event after time away.
The route had changed significantly over the past few years and there would be a new route again this year.
With the national hockey championships starting at the McMillan Centre the same day, it was decided to move the marathon away from the student area.
The full marathon would start at the Portobello Domain while the shorter events would start at the Caledonian Ground and then head out to Challis Point on the road to Portobello. Entrants would then turn round and finish at the Emerson’s car park.
