Olsen, 58, will complete the 12km, 8km and 4km events along Maitland’s riverfront as a lead-up run before flying out to South Africa on Tuesday.

Comrades, is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon race and is run annually in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Olsen said Comrades was the next big challenge after completing the six majors – the New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin and London marathons.

“You’ve got 12 hours to finish Comrades, I’m not a speed freak or anything, but I’m 58 now and hope to finish it in the 10-hour mark,” he said.

Comrades is a far cry from Olsen’s not so lofty target when he first took up running as a sport six years ago.

“I took the sport up to support my son. He was coming back from a knee injury in soccer and needed someone to help him get fit. 

“He said ‘come down the park and run with me’. At that time I said to him ‘son, I can’t run one kilometre, let alone three’. We started going down for a run and before I knew it I was running 5km and it went on from there.

“I ran my first half-marathon at Lake Macquarie and I just loved it.

“I’ve been all round the world with it. I’ve run in all the major marathons around the world New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin and London. They are called the six majors and you get a special medal for completing them all.

“My best time is 3 hours and 31 minutes and my worst is 3:45. I’m pretty consistent with my times. I’m not a world-record holder or anything like that I just get out there and give it a go.”

Although he has been all around the world, the Maitland River Run remains one of his favourites.

“I like Maitland, it’s the third time I’ve run it. I missed it because of the floods in 2015 and I wasn’t around for when they re-ran it,” he said.

“It’s a nice spot, you run along the levee bank which has been beautified so well. My family come down and watch, they sit at the cafes and drink coffee and eat while I’m running.”

“I do a lot of the events with H-Events, I think they do a good job of running events and they cater for everyone which is a great thing.

“This weekend you’ve got your 12km, 8km and 4km. Anyone who wants to have a go can run any of those distances  and you’ve got the mile as well.

“It’s an event where people can watch and see you running around, whereas a lot of events you go to you see them at the start and you don’t see them until they’ve finished.”

For details on the course and event running times go to www.hevents.com.au