The inaugural marathon - which kicks off on Sunday at 7am from Railway Place - is expected to attract hundreds of participants from across the country.

Grimmer - who is the race director alongside Bree Ryan - told The Standard there was plenty of excitement around Port Fairy this week.

"It is pretty exciting, especially seeing people out there familiarising themselves with the course," he said.

Grimmer said the idea to organise a marathon for Port Fairy would bring plenty of benefits to the community.

"We wanted an event in town like an endurance running event," he said.

"We thought we'd get maybe 100 to 150 people but from that it's grown to be bigger - there's a lot of events in Port Fairy and a lot to do here, but not a lot of sporting events yet there's a sporting community through the town."

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The marathon and running festival will have several courses to cater for different abilities, with the full 42.2km marathon, the half-marathon of 21.1km and 10km and 3.5km events.

"That's the idea, we wanted to make sure people who couldn't run a marathon or half-marathon could get involved," Grimmer said.

Grimmer said it was particularly exciting to see the amount of people who don't live in the south-west register for Sunday.

"Only around 20 per cent of the entrants are from postcodes from the area, the other 80 per cent are from further afield," he said.

"Our five-year plan was to get to 500 participants and now we're expecting around 700 so we've matched that.

"But our long-term plan is to be one of the major destination marathons in the country, not as big as the Great Ocean Road but mentioned in the same sentence."

For more go to portfairymarathon.com.au

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