London Marathon

London Marathon
2009 Flora London Marathon Logo
Date and location	April London, United Kingdom
Race type	Road
Distance	Marathon
Established	1981
Official site	www.london-marathon.co.uk

The London Marathon is a popular road marathon that has been held each year in London since 1981, usually in April. The race is currently sponsored by Flora, as the Flora London Marathon.

In addition to being one of the top five international marathons run over the traditional distance of 42.195 km (26 miles and 385 yards), the London Marathon is also a large, celebratory sporting festival, second only to the Great North Run in Newcastle, in terms of the number of participants. It is one of the World Marathon Majors, a two-year series of elite marathon racing that also includes the Boston, Chicago, New York and Berlin marathons.

An unusual feature is the very large amounts of money raised for charity, much more than other marathons.^[1] According to the race organisers, it is now the largest annual fund raising event in the world with the 2006 participants raising over £41.5 million for charity, bringing the total amount raised for charity by runners, to a grand total of £315 million.^[2] In 2007, 78% of all runners raised money.

1 History
2 Course description and information
3 Mini Marathon
4 Medical cover
5 Television coverage
6 2010 Sponsorship
7 Winners
- 7.1 Female
- 7.2 Male
8 Sponsors and Partners
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

History

See also: List of winners of the London Marathon

The London Marathon was founded by the former Olymic champion and renowned journalist Chris Brasher and John Disley. In 1979, shortly after completing the New York Marathon Brasher wrote an article for The Observer newspaper which began:

"To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen."

Inspired by the people of New York coming together for this occasion, he went on to question;

"...whether London could stage such a festival?"^[3]

Within a few months, Brasher and Disley were making trips to America to study the organisation and finance of big city marathons such as the New York and Boston Marathons. Brasher signed a contract with Gillette for £50,000, established charitable status and outlined six main aims in the hope to mirror the scenes he witnessed in New York and establish Britain on the map as a country capable of arranging major events. The London Marathon was born.^[4]

The first London Marathon was held on 29 March 1981, more than 20,000 applied to runL 6,747 were accepted and 6,255 crossed the finish line on Constitution Hill. The Marathon's popularity has steadily grown since then. In 2008 34,497 people crossed the line, the biggest field since the race began. 711,260 people have completed the race since its inception. ^[5]

The race is currently organised by former 10,000m world record holder David Bedford as Race Director and Nick Bitel as Chief Executive. Bedford and Bitel have overseen a period of great change for the race, including amendments to the course in 2005 which saw the famous cobbled section by the Tower of London replaced with a flat stretch along the Highway.^[6]

Whilst it is a serious athletic event, with large prize money attracting elite athletes, public perception of the race is dominated by club and fun runners. Only the summer British 10K race closes the centre of London similarly to the marathon. Sometimes in ludicrous fancy dress and often collecting money for charity, these make up the bulk of the 30,000+ runners and help to draw crowds of half a million on the streets. Nine people have died in relation to running the London Marathon since the event began, with the most recent being a 22-year-old man^[7] who died of hyponatremia.^[8]

On 19 April 2003, former boxer Michael Watson, who had been told he would never be able to walk again after a fight with Chris Eubank, made headlines by finishing the marathon in six days, becoming a national hero in England.

In 2006 Sir Steve Redgrave (winner of five consecutive Olympic Gold Medals) set a new Guinness World Record for money raised through a marathon by collecting £1.8 million in sponsorship. This broke the record set the previous year by the founder of the Oasis Trust, Steve Chalke MBE, who had collected over £1.25 million. Steve Chalke recovered the record in 2007, raising at least £1.85 million.^[9]

A small number of runners, known as the "Ever Presents", have completed each of the London Marathons since 1981. By 2008 their number had shrunk to 22. As of 2008, the oldest runners amongst them are 74 year old Kenneth Jones and Jeffrey Gordon, whilst the youngest runner is 49-year-old Chris Finill. They are all male. ^[10]

Course description and information

All Runners must be over 18 to enter and must be fit and well on race day. The course starts in three separate points around Blackheath at 115ft above sea level, on the south of the Thames. All the runners eventually converging in Woolwich where the Royal Artillery Barracks is passed, the route descending from 140ft to 35ft over a distance of half a mile.

At approximately 6 ½ miles runners go around the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Then the course goes through Surrey Quays, Bermondsey and along Jamaica Road before reaching Tower Bridge at around 12 miles. The runners then cross the Thames, turning east along The Highway through Wapping to the Isle of Dogs, before returning back along The Highway passing the Tower of London at 22 ½ miles.

The route now follows the Thames along the Embankment up to the Houses of Parliament where it turns toward St James's Park and Buckingham Palace, finishing in The Mall. This section of the route will form part of the 2012 Olympic Marathon Course.

It is the only Marathon course in the world that is run in two hemispheres, both the East and West, as the full course crosses the Prime Meridian in Greenwich.

Mini Marathon

The Adidas Mini Marathon is the sister of The London Marathon. The course is the last 3 miles of the London Marathon and is aimed at ages 11-12, 13-14, 15-17 from all 33 London Boroughs along with 13 teams from ten English counties and three Home Countries: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is also a Mini Wheelchair race on the day.

Medical cover

Medical cover is provided mainly by the volunteers of St. John Ambulance. Its members travel from all over the country to care for runners who require medical attention.

Television coverage

The BBC covers the event, devoting rolling coverage for most of the morning. The theme music associated with this coverage, and with the event itself, is called Main Titles to The Trap, composed by Ron Goodwin for the film The Trap.

2010 Sponsorship

On 16 May 2008 London Marathon Limited signed a new five year sponsorship deal with Virgin and Virgin Money. Virgin will spend £17m on the five year deal and aim to raise even more money for good causes.

Winners

Female

1981	Joyce Smith	United Kingdom	2:29:57
1982	Joyce Smith	United Kingdom	2:29:43
1983	Grete Waitz	Norway	2:25:29
1984	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	2:24:26
1985	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	2:21:06
1986	Grete Waitz	Norway	2:24:54
1987	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	2:22:48
1988	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	2:25:41
1989	Véronique Marot	United Kingdom	2:25:56
1990	Wanda Panfil	Poland	2:26:31
1991	Rosa Mota	Portugal	2:26:14
1992	Katrin Dörre	Germany	2:29:39
1993	Katrin Dörre	Germany	2:27:09
1994	Katrin Dörre	Germany	2:32:34
1995	Malgorzata Sobanska	Poland	2:27:43
1996	Liz McColgan	United Kingdom	2:27:54
1997	Joyce Chepchumba	Kenya	2:26:51
1998	Catherina McKiernan	Ireland	2:26:26
1999	Joyce Chepchumba	Kenya	2:23:22
2000	Tegla Loroupe	Kenya	2:24:33
2001	Derartu Tulu	Ethiopia	2:23:57
2002	Paula Radcliffe	United Kingdom	2:18:56
2003	Paula Radcliffe	United Kingdom	2:15:24 Female world record
2004	Margaret Okayo	Kenya	2:22:35
2005	Paula Radcliffe	United Kingdom	2:17:42 World best performance of the year – 3rd World best performance of all time
2006	Deena Kastor	United States	2:19:36
2007	Zhou Chunxiu	China	2:20:38
2008	Irina Mikitenko	Germany	2:24:14

Male

1981	Dick Beardsley Inge Simonsen	Norway / United States	2:11:48
1982	Hugh Jones	United Kingdom	2:09:24
1983	Mike Gratton	United Kingdom	2:09:43
1984	Charlie Spedding	United Kingdom	2:09:57
1985	Steve Jones	United Kingdom	2:08:16
1986	Toshihiko Seko	Japan	2:10:02
1987	Hiromi Taniguchi	Japan	2:09:50
1988	Henrik Jørgensen	Denmark	2:10:20
1989	Douglas Wakiihuri	Kenya	2:09:03
1990	Allister Hutton	United Kingdom	2:10:10
1991	Yakov Tolstikov	USSR	2:09:17
1992	António Pinto	Portugal	2:10:02
1993	Eamonn Martin	United Kingdom	2:10:50
1994	Dionicio Cerón	Mexico	2:08:53
1995	Dionicio Cerón	Mexico	2:08:30
1996	Dionicio Cerón	Mexico	2:10:00
1997	António Pinto	Portugal	2:07:55
1998	Abel Antón	Spain	2:07:57
1999	Abdelkader El Mouaziz	Morocco	2:07:57
2000	António Pinto	Portugal	2:06:36
2001	Abdelkader El Mouaziz	Morocco	2:07:09
2002	Khalid Khannouchi	United States	2:05:38
2003	Gezahegne Abera	Ethiopia	2:07:56
2004	Evans Rutto	Kenya	2:06:18
2005	Martin Lel	Kenya	2:07:26 World Best for the year
2006	Felix Limo	Kenya	2:06:39
2007	Martin Lel	Kenya	2:07:41
2008	Martin Lel	Kenya	2:05:15 New London Marathon Record