It is certainly not going to be easy. Nick Bester (Nedbank Sport) has no hesitation in describing the Soweto Marathon as one of the toughest marathons on the race calendar.

'The biggest mistake any athlete can make when competing in the Soweto Marathon is to race specific athletes. If you do, you are going to die out there. It is never a dice – it is all about survival.

'November is always one of the hottest months of the year, and what's going to make matters even worse is the fact that Gauteng is currently caught in a heatwave. So I expect that it's going to be even hotter than usual. To top it all, it is a high-altitude race run on a hilly course.

'Last year was considered to be a fast race because eight athletes dipped under 2:30 but I also saw many athletes who had to be carried to the medical tent due to heat exhaustion.'

Sintayehu Legese Yinesu of Ethiopia, who will be running in the colours of Nedbank Running Club, will try and complete his Soweto hat-trick. He has won the previous two years, and last year his winning time was 2:23:20.

According to Bester, Yinesu is definitely one of the athletes to watch.

'But I somehow have a feeling that Fokoroni is going to be the athlete to beat. He is a clever runner who can read a race – he knows when to do what. When I spoke to him I quickly picked up that he is really motivated to run a good race.'

Bester predicts that the athletes of Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Lesotho will again dominate the race.

'Africa Mailola, who finished ninth last year, was the only South African athlete to finish in the top 10.'

Mailola won't be competing on Sunday, as he raced in Dublin the past weekend where he also finished ninth in a time of 2:19:13.

Kenya's Harriet Jepchumbe Chebere won the 2015 women's race. In what many may describe as a big surprise, Irvette van Zyl (Nedbank Running Club), announced that she will be competing in the women's marathon.

Van Zyl, winner of the SPAR Grand Prix 10 km Series, has 'unfinished business' as far as the marathon is concerned, as she had to withdraw from the Olympic Marathon in Rio due to a stress fracture in her left foot. She has been beaten only once this year in a local race, which was at the South African 21 km Championships, where she finished second.

What makes the Soweto Marathon special is the fact that the runners will pass six significant heritage sites en route – the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (the third-largest hospital in the world), Walter Sisulu Square (birthplace of the 1955 Freedom Charter that emphasised a non-racial society, liberty and individual rights), Regina Mundi Catholic Church (also referred to as 'the people's church' due to its role in the anti-apartheid struggle), Morris Isaacson High School, Vilakazi Street and the Hector Pieterson Memorial.