If you’ve reached this blog, the likelihood is that you've heard of the London Marathon; whether that’s as a spectator, runner, or being rejected by its brutal ballot (I’m with you there). London is 1 of the 6 major marathons (*1 of 7 by the end of the year, congrats Sydney for joining the party); it is the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event (£73.5 million); and is the record holder for the most number of ballot entries (840,318). But what makes London so special this year?

1. Anniversary year

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to London, happy birthday to you! 45 candles on the cake for London this year with a new kit design released and a new medal design soon to follow.  Not to mention our newest London Major crew!

2. Cream of the crop: The Elites

An elite lineup for the history books!!

The star studded lineup for the elite men includes:

1. Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09) - Former WR holder 2018-2023
2. Jacob Kiplimo (57:31)* - World Cross Country Champion
3. Kenenisa Bekele (2:01:41) - OLY gold 2008 (5k, 10k)

Six of these elite athletes are entered as sub-2:04 runners, heating things up to be a very interesting race.

The women’s start line up will see the fastest female runners in history toeing the line: 

1. Ruth Chepngetich (2:09:56) - WR holder
2. Tigst Assefa (2:11:53) - 2x Berlin marathon champion, OLY silver
3. Sifan Hassan (2:13:44) - London 2023 champion, OLY medal treble
4. Alemu Megertu (London 2024 marathon champion, 2:16:34)

With six runners in the elite female lineup seeded as a sub-2:17, will we see the 2:16:16 course record fall?

3. British Pride:

Some of the elite Brits donning red, white, and blue include:

• Eilish Mccolgan (British record holder for 5k/10k/HM)*

• Alex Yee (OLY triathlon gold, tri-relay bronze, and 5 time mini marathon champion)*

British women lining up amongst the elite include: Rose Harvey, Phily Bowden, Lucy Reid, Becky Briggs, Anya Culling, Louise Small, Holly Archer*.

British elite men set to start on the 27th of April include: Mahamed Mahamed, Phil Sesemann, Jonathan Mellor, Dewi Griffiths, Weynay Ghebresilasie, Jake Smith, Marc Scott, Luke Caldwell, Dan Nash, Andrew Heyes, ALexander Lepretre, David Bishop, Logan Smith, William Mycroft, James Hoad, Alex Milne, Chris Thomas, Carl Avery, Sean Hogan, Jonathan Davies*, Jacob Allen*, Jack Rowe*

*Debut marathon

4. A win for women: record number of female entries

It was only 59 years ago when people believed the marathon was too far for women to run. In 1966, Bobbi Gibb hid in a bush and made her way onto Boston’s course in order to run the marathon and the following year, Katherine Switzer became Boston’s first officially registered female athlete. In the London Marathon’s first year less than 300 of the 6,255 finishers were women but this year a record-breaking 49% of UK applicants were female! 

5. Get me some Guinness: World record number of finishers

In addition to the record-breaking number of entries, the London Marathon events team predicts that more than 56,000 runners will complete the race on April 27. This will (hopefully) surpass the current record held by New York marathon of 55,646 finishers.

The Monkey Sox team wishes everyone running the best of luck as we approach the last few weeks before the annual fancy dress party through the city, aka the iconic London Marathon!

Be sure to come and see us at the expo....and stay tuned for our Cheer Point on the day as we support Lianne and all others running for our 3 Multiple Sclerosis charities (and everyone else of course!).