KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sneakers are laced. Carbs are being loaded. We’re just hours away from the start of the Kansas City Marathon.

The annual road race takes off this Saturday, and about 6,000 runners will spread across the city, affecting everywhere from downtown to Ward Parkway to 18th and Vine.

If you’re headed out for a drive, make sure your aware of street closures associated with Kansas City’s largest marathon.

Participants continued to pick up their bibs Friday. A steady stream of people entered the building for pick-up. Most of them are competing in the half-marathon, which has about 3,000 entrants.

But the intensity gets kicked up a level for about 100 runners who said the Kansas City Marathon won’t be their only race of the weekend.

Scott Green, known online as “The Bearded Runner,” said this year’s marathon will be his first true 26.2-mile race. He said it’s the culmination of a long journey.

“I’ve been sober for 640 days. I’m down 55 pounds,” Green said.

But he’s now he’s taking on another challenge, and he’s not stopping at one marathon.

“Yeah, I’m a little bit off my rocker here, but I’m going to do the I-35 challenge,” Green said.

“I-35 connects Kansas City to Des Moines, and they try to work it out so that the marathons are back-to-back,” Green said.

More than 100 people are attempting the challenge: completing the Garmin Kansas City Marathon first on Saturday and the IMT Des Moines Marathon next on Sunday.

“If people have been distance running for a long time, sometimes just doing a half marathon is pretty easy. I know it sounds crazy to us in the general public. So doing two of those in 24 hours is a challenge,” said Dave Borchardt, race director for the Garmin Kansas City Marathon.

“I’m just going to do the full here and the half there as a recovery run. Beautiful race up there. It’s very nice,” Green said.

“A recovery run?” FOX4 asked.

“A recovery run, yeah,” Green said, with a glint in his eye.