It's even a chance for those experienced competitors to try something different.

Bathurst's Dean Windsor fits into that category.

Windsor, a former professional cyclist, has seen his fare share of running events but he's yet to take on a half marathon.

That will all change on Sunday.

With encouragement from friends and family Windsor will step up to try his hand at the 21.1km distance.

For someone like Windsor, half the challenge isn't reaching the distance, it's trying not to spend all the fuel in the early stages.

"Last year I did the 10km and thought my pacing my great. That was the case for the first two to three kays then I faded quickly," he laughed.

"There's a great chance I'll go out way too fast and try and run with the good runners before I blow up towards the last few kilometres.

"I'm really looking forward to it though. Overall, I just enjoy getting out and doing a bit of running and from doing it last year it's a great event and my wife also did it with me."

From his description of the 2018 race you would think Windsor really dropped the ball but he far from disgraced himself by finishing sixth place overall in 36 minutes and 41 seconds.

His wife, Dominique, also had a great result by finishing on the women's 10km podium.

Windsor's been a regular feature at the top of the Bathurst parkrun standings - 26 times to be precise - but adding an addition 16km on top of that makes a half marathon a different beast.

"I haven't ever thought 'I'll train specifically for a half marathon' and while I'm a competitive-styled person I'm not training up to fulfil any goals apart from the achievement of doing my first half marathon," he said.

"Whatever time I do I can look at that and try and better it the next year."

The Bathurst half marathon course is as good a circuit as any to try your 21.1km run.

The flat-as-a-pancake setup, north east of the Macquarie River, takes painful ascents out of the equation.

"The 10km course last year was really enjoyable. Because it's a nice, flowing course you can keep a decent pace," Windsor said.

"It was great last year having different people to run with and pace off. The best thing is that with the u-turns you can see how other people are going.

"It's a nice change from the other two Bathurst fun runs in that regard - the Mount Panorama Punish and the Edgell Jog."

Both of Sunday's races get started at 9am.