The Hunter Valley Winery Run will stage a night-time "Moon Marathon" on the anniversary of the moon landing (Saturday, July 20) before the main event on the Sunday.

Event director Paul Humphreys of H Events said the moon marathon looked set to become a permanent addition to the annual Hunter Valley Winery Running Festival, which is held at The Vintage Golf Resort and Spa.

The four-lap marathon will be staged on safe golf cart paths of the exclusive golf course from 4.30pm. Runners, who must wear a head lamp, can select to do all four laps or take part as a two or four person relay team.

"With lots of relay teams doing the four lap marathon, we expect that we will get no shortage of people dressing up, luna style," Humphreys said.

As runners finish, the post-race party will begin, with runners warming up on a Hunter red and some hearty meals on offer.

A few runners are also expected to line up the next day in one of the other events - the half marathon, 10km, 6km or 2km.

"After 14 years of staging the Hunter Valley Winery Run in and around Pokolbin, the Moon Marathon will mark a turning point for the festival," Mr Humphreys said.

"We feel it's time to crank up the festival into a two or maybe even three day event, over the next few years.

"While our main focus with these events is always the running and health and fitness, there is obviously a major economic benefit to the area by bringing such a large number of participants to the wine country area.

More than 50 per cent of the field comes from Sydney or further.

"For some time we have wanted to stage part of this event on the Saturday, to give people more chance to wine taste and dine on the Sunday, however, using the required roads it is almost impossible on a Saturday around the Pokolbin area, as it is their busiest day," Humphreys said.

"Since relocating the event to The Vintage, there is now scope to stage the event on the Saturday evening and night, once golfers are finished for the day."

More than 250 runners have already signed up for the moon marathon and Humphreys was expecting about 500 runners in total.

Since starting in 2006 the Sunday event has grown to be one of the biggest regional running events in Australia. It gains entries from China, Hong Kong, Canada, US, New Zealand and France.

Across the whole weekend, the event looks set to attract more than 2000 participants and 4000 spectators.

Humphreys said the success of the event was partly due to the interesting and picturesque courses, which meander through or past some of the region's most famous vineyards and resorts.

The courses include some flat and hills on a combination of roads, solid golf cart tracks and a small amount of grass.

The regular drink stations and marshaling are provided by the local Cessnock Lions Clubs members.

"With a venue that allows the start and finish lines just 50m apart, and a gourmet selection of food and drinks on the finish line, it makes spectating easy," say Humphreys.

NOTE: The event encourages the responsible consumption of alcohol. Please note, no alcohol is offered on any of the drink stations or as part of the event.

Event information is available at www.wineryrun.com.