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round 4,500 runners will participate in BII Maybank Bali Marathon 2014, an annual race featuring a course that combines flat roads and rolling hills held on the resort island this Sunday.

This year'€™s number of participants saw at least a 30 percent increase compared to last year, with slots for each category reaching their maximum quotas.

'€œAll slots have been taken up and, therefore, we have to close our registration,'€ said project manager Satyo Haryo Wibisono.

Held in Gianyar regency since 2012, the race will feature four categories: full marathon (42.2 kilometers), half marathon (21.1 km), a 10-km run and a children'€™s sprint. In this race, participants will be competing for total prizes worth US$150,000, which will be divided between 88 winners.

The race will commence at 5 a.m. local time for the full marathon category, followed by the half marathon that will start at 5:30 a.m. and the 10-km run 30 minutes later. Participants of the children'€™s sprint will start competing at 8:30 a.m.

Along the course, the runners will experience Bali'€™s unique natural life and traditional art performances.

The full marathon and half marathon routes have been certified and endorsed by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS). Measurement of the routes was conducted by international measurement administrator Dave Cundy, who is a Grade A IAAF-AIMS course measurer.

'€œOur inaugural event and the second event of the BII Maybank Bali Marathon were tremendously successful. We saw a 50 percent increase in the number of participants from 2,000 runners in the 2012 race to more than 3,000 runners in 2013. In line with the increasing public interest in running, we also saw a significant rise in the number of runners participating in this year'€™s race,'€ said BII president director Taswin Zakaria.

Last year'€™s BII Maybank Bali Marathon saw participants from 46 countries, including elite runners from Kenya, Europe, USA, Asia and Australia. At the same time, this event captured the growing interest of Indonesian runners.

Kenya'€™s international runner Lilan Kennedy Kiproo had also registered to compete in this year'€™s event, as he will attempt to score a hat trick after winning the full marathon category in both the 2012 and 2013 races.

Another Kenyan long-distance runner, Luke Kibet, who won the first prize in the half marathon category in 2012 and the second prize in last year'€™s race in the same category, seeks a bigger challenge this year by joining the full marathon. He is predicted to be Kiproo'€™s toughest rival.

Kenyan female runner Elizabeth Jeruiyot Chemweno seeks to win first place in this year'€™s full marathon category after being defeated by Ethiopia'€™s Meseret Mengistu Biru last year.

Barbara Oravetz, co-founder of the BII Maybank Bali Marathon, will also participate in this year'€™s race, in an attempt to promote running as part of a healthy lifestyle.

The BII Maybank Bali Marathon has been declared as a running course that fulfills the qualification to be included in the official race directory of the Boston Marathon, a special competition for runners with a certain minimum qualifying time.

The Boston Marathon itself is part of the six World Marathon Majors series, in addition to the marathon events in Berlin, New York, London, Chicago and Tokyo.

As part of the BII Maybank Bali Marathon, the organizer will hold corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. This year, BII will hold an auction of paintings created by students of local schools in Gianyar. All the proceeds of the auction will be donated to the regency'€™s educational programs.

The bank will also donate sports and art equipment to the schools located along the marathon route. For local paraplegics who want to feel the ambience of an international running competition, BII will provide wheelchairs to enable them to take part in the 10-km race.