In a week's time, 60,000 runners will pack the roads in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island for one of the city's biggest annual sporting events.
A small group of professional competitors in the full marathon will be focused on the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2010's prize money of US$80,000.
Yet most participants will have a different target - to challenge themselves in distance running by securing a personal best - or simply finishing the course and enjoying themselves in the company of family members and friends.
All 60,000 places in the field - a record in the event's 13-year history and up from last year's 55,000 runners - were filled within three weeks of October's start of applications.
The full marathon race over 42.19kilometres has 15,000 entrants, with 8,000 - up from 7,000 last year - contesting the half marathon and 37,000 runners in the 10km race - split into five separate fields, instead of only four last - to cope with the extra 4,000 runners racing over this distance.
The first of the five fields, the 10km Challenge, starts at Island Eastern Corridor, near Fortress Hill, at 5:15am for runners who have achieved a best time of less than one hour and 10 minutes. The second 10km race follows at 5.40am, the next at 6.05am, the next at 6.30am and the last at 7am. All five races will finish at Victoria Park.