About 55,000 people are due to take part in the Great North Run - the annual half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields.
The famous race will be started by five London 2012 gold medallists, including distance running star Mo Farah.
The Great North Run was first staged in 1981 and has become one of the world's biggest running events.
Among those taking part will be a man running the course with a fridge tied to his back for the 30th day in a row.
Tony "The Fridge" Phoenix-Morrison has run the 13.1-mile circuit with a 40kg fridge strapped to his back on each of the past 29 days as part of a challenge to raise money for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation cancer charity.
The 48-year-old, from Hebburn, has taken part in the Great North Run 16 times, including his first time bearing the fridge last year.
And he has said he will run the same course on Monday without the kitchen appliance, "just for fun".
"It's been an honour to carry out this challenge. I worked really hard to prepare for it and I've got stronger as it has gone on," he said.
"I'm just going to take my time and enjoy it.
"I am a little bit broken but I won't take long to repair. I stopped drinking for this challenge and I've never wanted a pint of lager more in my life."
Double Olympic champion Farah - who also started the race last year when he had just been crowned world 5,000m champion - was due to run the race for the first time this year.
But the athlete, who has newly-born twin daughters, pulled out earlier this month saying: "The last few weeks have taken their toll and it would be disrespectful to take on the distance without the necessary hard training."
He did however win a two-mile race at the Great North CityGames on Gateshead quayside on Saturday.
The Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m gold medallist will act as honorary starter alongside fellow London 2012 champions long jumper Greg Rutherford, boxer Nicola Adams, Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds and rower Kat Copeland, who comes from the North East.
Farah said he was looking forward to "high-fiving as many people as possible" at the start of the race.
There will be a fly-past by the Red Arrows display team during the race.
The Great North Run was devised by 1976 Olympic 10,000m medallist and BBC athletics commentator Brendan Foster. The first race in 1981 attracted 12,000 participants but over the next three decades it has become the UK's largest mass participation race, with only the London Marathon attracting a crowd close to matching it.
Last year's event saw Kenyan winners of both the men's and women's races - Martin Mathathi and Lucy Wangui - but the women's wheelchair event was won by Great Britain's Shelly Woods who took a silver medal in the marathon at the London Paralympics last Sunday.
Particpants will run from the Central Motorway in Newcastle, across the Tyne Bridge, down the Felling Bypass and on to the John Reid Road to the coast at South Shields.
16 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19614850#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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