The London Marathon
This weekend sees the 31st London Marathon taking place so we thought it would be interesting to look at a bit of the history behind the race and wish you all good luck.
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Image by: howardlake
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world and is part of the World Marathon Majors series which includes four other four other races with the winner of the series taking home a $1 million prize purse. However, this is not really what the London Marathon is about for the majority of people entering. As it is a huge charity fundraiser and attracts thousands of people looking to be a part of one of the biggest sporting events in the world.
The London Marathon was founded in 1981 by former Olympic champion and journalist Chris Brasher and Welsh athlete John Disley. Set largely over a flat course that goes around the Thames the marathon has three different starting points around Blackheath and finishes at the Mall next to St James Park. Despite going for over thirty years there have been very few changes made to the original course. As mentioned the London Marathon is a huge event for charities having raised over £450 million since 1981 it is in the Guinness Book Of Records as the largest annual fundraising event in the world.
The first London Marathon was actually a tie between American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen, who crossed the finish line holding hands in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 48 seconds. This sums up the idea behind the London Marathon, although this wouldn’t happen in the men’s or women’s elite competition today it is still an iconic statement that rings true with today’s competitors.
For all those who are going to be competing you need to make sure that you are ready and prepared, you will have pretty much completed your training and will be in the tapering down phase. And you will soon be joining many other runners all looking to have a great day. Last years marathon saw 36,500 entrants! We collected some stories from others who are running the marathon and put them together for you to have a look at and draw some inspiration.
Before you head off to the race make sure that you have taken the time to make a list of all the things that you need to tick off such as running shoes, wash bag, course map to make sure that there are no other factors that could be stressing you out when you really need to focus on the job of completing 26 miles. As shown in the clever video below which was made entirely on Google street view.
