London Marathon

This Sunday 13 April sees the 28th annual running of the London Marathon. Around 46,000 runners will attempt to complete the 26 miles and 385 yards from Blackheath near Greenwich to the finish on The Mall a few hundred yards in front of Buckingham Palace, and in the process draw hundreds of thousands of spectators onto the streets of central London in what is one of the biggest events in the capital all year.

The runners assemble at Greenwich Park and there are three different starting points, Blue for the Elite Men, Elite Women and the Elite Mens and Womens Wheelchair races, Green for celebrity runners and Red for the Mass Start. There are also staggered starting times with the Elite Women beginning at 9am, the Elite Wheelchair races at 9.25am and the Elite Men and the Mass Start at 9.45am.

The race route takes the athletes/runners east towards Woolwich before coming back along the southern side of the River Thames through Grenwich and Rotherhithe, then over Tower Bridge, back east to Docklands and Canary Wharf before turning west again, on through Whitechapel and past the Tower of London and onto the Victoria Embankment and a long run along the side of the Thames to Westminster.

There are plenty of oppurtunities to watch the race along the route although some areas such as around the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and of course near the finish and Buckingham Palace are pretty crowded and you’ll want to get your spot early here. Among the celebrity runners this year are a group of six Maasai Warriors who have left Tanzania for the first time to run the London Marathon in traditional clothing carrying shields, sticks and singing songs in order to raise money to provide clean water for their village. The Maasai have been in London since 4 April getting acclimatized, its fairly cool right now and the weather for Sunday is predicted to be sunshine and showers. If you see them on the route give them a cheer.

By Chris | Permalink

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