Looks and sounds amazing. I wish I was there. I'm not sure the current leader can keep this pace though.
Wow. Never seen crowds like this before and doesn't it show our capital off well.
Trouble is they changed the route for the olympics. Generally the london marathon runs round alot of uninspiring boring areas kind of like round shoreham alot. Other marathons show off their cities really well.
They should keep this route but they wont.
Yeah, I bet you'll absolutely HATE having to run around Blackheath and Docklands next April
Lol. But my mate who has ran FIFTY marathons worldwide incl Paris, Madrid, Athens, Boston, New York, Chicago etc (and yes even Brighton and Blackpool) says that london is one of the most boring sights wise for those exact reasoms.
They should keep this route but they wont.
I'd still do it though. Got my name in the ballot for London 2013, but have a guaranteed place for Brighton in the likely event that I don't get a London place. Brighton was great when I did it, so I won't be gutted if I have to do that one. I think you only have about a one in eight chance of being successful in the London ballot.
It's more a case of they cannot use this course for a mass participation marathon as it's too tight, twisty and narrow. Berlin did a similar thing during the world championships a few years ago; they used a tight compact 4 lap course for the tournament as opposed to the usual single lap marathon route.
No that thought had crossed my mind but for example oxford street etc is wide enough yet they wont run down there. Other cities would allow it.
And also that the Olympics is a global TV event that occurs only once every four years, whereas the London Marathon is as much an annual charity fun run with a bunch of elite athletes chucked in. The Olympics has the budget and the infrastructure (security, justification for road closures etc) to be able to pull off a more visually enticing course, whereas the Virgin effort can't get away with that. Londoners wouldn't be so sympathetic to the city's major arteries being closed off for an entire day.
Londoners wouldn't be so sympathetic to the city's major arteries being closed off for an entire day.
The point is other cities do and are.