CLOSE to 150 runners are expected to take the half-marathon challenge in this year’s Orange Colour City Running Festival in Orange on Sunday.

It’s a record number of participants for the annual 21 kilometre fun run, which also includes a 10km run and a five kilometre walk.

Orange distance runner Rod Draper said he was looking forward to improving on his previous attempts at the run.

“I’ve only done it a couple of times, the last time I think I finished around fourth in about 76-and-a-half minutes,” Draper said.

“Hopefully I can do it a bit quick this year. I think if I can get it down to about 75 minutes I’ll be pretty happy.”

It is hoped last year’s winners, Canberra’s Scott McTaggart and Magda Karimali-Poulos, will be back in Orange to defend their crowns.

Entries are accepted right up until the start of the race so it is possible the duo will be a part of the half-marathon.

Draper has been training hard to try and match it with the best.

“I’ve been doing 80 kilometre weeks so far. When I have a half-hour here or an hour there I try and get outside and have a bit of a run,” he said.

It’s something Draper has been doing for close to 11 years.

“I used to play a lot of sports and I just saw someone going for a run one day and thought it’s probably something I can do,” the 36-year-old said.

“And once I started it became a bit addictive.”

The 2011 course will be identical to that which runners completed in 2010.

Runners will start in Bloomfield, run through Leewood Park then onto Bloomfield road, complete a lap of the Gosling Creek circuit, run along Forest Road, through Jack Brabham and then back into Bloomfield.

Draper said competitors knew what to expect from the tough circuit.

“The course, I wouldn’t call it electrifyingly fast. It’s a bit of a challenge, there are parts that are dirt and you change surface quite often. But with it being the same course as in the past I know what to expect now,” he said.

Draper said the challenge of a competitive race always made for an enthralling run.

“The half marathon is probably my favourite distance. It’s a distance that most people can last for,” he said.

The Orange Colour City Running Festival is on this Sunday.