The biggest running event in the country will already be introduced with a major fair at the Gospodarsko razstavišče fairgrounds staring on 24 October, while young runners will open the course on Saturday morning.

Saturday will also feature the half marathon national championships as well as the Fun tek event, which is reserved for foreign visitors wishing to explore the capital while running.

Sunday's action will meanwhile start at 8:30 AM with the 10-kilometre competition, to be followed at 10:30 AM with the 21- and 41-kilometre events.

More than 28,000 runners have signed up so far, which is a new record. "This is more than a 5% increase," the marathon's director Gojko Zalokar has commented on the figures, which come after the event saw a slight downtick last year following years of constant growth.

Zalokar announced slight changes to the course, which will allow a faster time, and points where visitors will be able to cross the course.

The head of organisational committee Andrej Razdrih meanwhile touched on last-year's organisational blunder, which saw the leading quartet being accidentally misled into taking a wrong turn in the final kilometres of the 42-km race. The incident cost them a chance of victory and possibly also of a new record that would have involved and additional bonus.

They were compensated financially, which Razdrih said proved to be the right decision. "Two of the four returned this year and we expect they will have a successful marathon," Razdrih added.

Kenyan and Ethiopian runners tend to dominate the Ljubljana Marathon. Kenyan runner Laban Mutai (2:09:16) won the men's and his compatriot Purity Changwony (2:29:31) the women's 42-km event last year.