The Berlin marathon on Sunday expects 45,527 runners, organizers said on Monday.
"That is round about the level we had in 2019," Jürgen Lock from SCC Events said, with the 2020 event cancelled and the 2021 version having heavy restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A record 157 nations will be represented.
"This shows that normality has returned," he added.
No masks are required this year.
Double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya is the star attraction as the 37-year-old attempts to lower the official world record of 2 hours 1.39 minutes which he set in the German capital in 2018.
"I want to run a good race, be it a world record, a personal best, I want it to be it a good race," he told reporters this weekend.
"I don't think I am going to run under two hours," he added. He achieved the feat in 2019 in Vienna but the record is unofficial because it was held outside competition and with different pacing rules.
