The endurance event will be run in conjunction with the annual Koroit to Warrnambool Half Marathon in August.

WAC president John Keats expected the inaugural 50-kilometre ultra marathon to be popular.

“It’s a new idea that we’ve come up with,” he said.

“It’s basically a new challenge for people who have done the marathon and are looking for something new.”

The course will start in Port Fairy and utilise the rail trail.

“The initial part of the ultra course will be Port Fairy to Koroit, then the last part will be the half marathon course,” Keats told The Standard.

“It will finish in Warrnambool down at the running track. It’s a wonderful course.”

Keats is a member of the Australian Ultra Runners Association, which fosters and promotes the sport of ultra marathon running in Australia.

“There’s a big ultra scene down in Melbourne and all across the state,” he said.

“It’s often for people who have run a full marathon and are looking for something else and want to work towards a new goal.

“They’re looking for something more challenging.

“The last 10 kilometres of a marathon is very, very hard but in the ultra marathon, you’ve still got another eight kilometres after that.” The WAC president said an ultra marathon required a different training schedule compared with a marathon.

“The pace is probably going to be a little bit slower (than a marathon),” he said.

“You probably need to really concentrate on the longer running.”

Keats hopes numerous female runners will participate in the event as the fairer sex has traditionally been known to excel in ultra marathons.

“You tend to find that girls are great endurance runners,” he said. “Sometimes the girls will win the whole thing because the further the event is, the closer they get to the male runners.”

As well as local interest, the event is expected to draw competitors from outside the region, such as triathletes who are preparing for ironman events.