Over 35,000 runners will take part in the 8th annual Jerusalem Marathon Friday with over 4,000 visitors from 72 countries expected to hit the roads of the capital for the largest run in the event’s history.

The event will include several tracks, a full marathon (42.2 kilometers), half-marathon (21.1 km), 10 km race, 5 km race, family 1.7km race and an 800 meter community race.

Among the participants in this year’s event is legendary  long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, who holds two Olympic gold medals in the 10,000-meters and four world titles for that same distance, and he was the first runner in the world to break the 2:04 record for the marathon. The 44-year-old Ethiopian, who broke a total of 27 world records in perhaps the most distinguished career in the history of long-distance running, will take part in the 10,000 meter track in Friday’s event.

“I’m very happy to be in Jerusalem and cannot believe this is my first time here,” Gebrselassie said after joining Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat on a practice run Thursday. “”It is very exciting for me to visit and to run in one of the most important, historic and holy cities in the world,” he added.

Barkat, a running enthusiast, who will also run the 10,000 meter track, said Gebrselassie’s in the event was a ‘testimony to the importance of Jerusalem in the eyes of the world and the international prestige of the marathon.”