The countdown is on to this year’s Blue Lake Fun Run, with many runners already taking to the streets to prepare for the event.

The fun run will be held on November 27 and will incorporate four race distances, ranging from 3.2km to a half marathon.

The inaugural event was held in 2010, with Mount Gambier’s Lakes Rotary Club organising the Blue Lake Fun Run since 2014.

The 2010 event saw 1003 registered participants take part in a professionally run event featuring DAG electronic timing, closed roads and a scenic course along Mount Gambier’s Bay Road and famous Blue Lake.

This year the 10.4km course begins in Mount Gambier’s city centre alongside the Cave Gardens with the beginning stages of the course flat, before a steady climb up Bay Road to the Blue Lake.

Participants turn left at the Blue Lake and run/walk two undulating clockwise laps of the Blue Lake.

As runners make their way around the Blue Lake they will be exposed to views of farmland and extinct volcano, Mount Schank to their left and views of the Blue Lake to their right.

After completing the two laps around the Blue Lake runners descend down Bay Road for a fast finish at the Cave Gardens.

The 21.1km incorporates the 10.4km course and also includes a portion of the rail trail and a section down to the Valley and Brownes lakes.

The 6.8km replicates the 10.4km course with just one lap around the Blue Lake, while the 3.2km course is run up Bay Road with a turnaround at the Blue Lake.

This year’s event will take place on the same weekend as the prestigious Mount Gambier Gift carnival, which will be run and won the day before.

Organisers are hoping to attract people to the region to take part in a weekend of running events.

All event finishers will receive an environmentally friendly pine finishers medal and lanyard, with medals awarded both male and female first, second and third placegetters, as well as also to the first three finishers aged over 50 in all events.