FEEL & LOOK GOOD THE BEST YOU I
RACE REPORT
t all started in a London pub in 1978, after members of the Raneleigh Harriers running club came back
from running the New York Marathon, and couldn't stop talking about it. Excited runners reported
that unlike the usual British experience of marathons in which 20 runners were watched by ruminating cows and a handful of spectators, the New York Marathon was a completely different experience. That energy is what prompted Olympic runner Chris Brasher and John Disley enter the 1979 race and find out it was all about. Back home, Brasher
suggested the idea of a London Marathon in a newspaper article, and the following year planning began. One major obstacle was the Metropolitan Police's fear of bringing the city to a halt by closing 26 miles of road. Once the course along the Thames was agreed, with only two bridges closed down and many tourist sites included, the course was ready to go.
The first year, on 29th March
1981 there were 7,747 runners out of the 20,000 who wanted to run, and 6,255 finishers. By 2013, that figure had
swollen to 34,000 runners finishing the course and an amazing 700,000 out on the streets to watch the runners go by.
The scale of the marathon
grew in other ways, too. At the beginning, it was the individual runners who entered the race for charity - bringing their crazy outfits and sense of fun to what was also a serious, fast marathon. Nowadays, this amazing
hybrid of a race and a fundraiser has taken the London Marathon to the record
In 2007, £46.5 million was raised for good causes by runners, making the London Marathon a Guinness world record breaker
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The people of London are getting active
April saw the annual London Marathon once more take to the streets of the great metropolis. The Best You looks at the amazing history of the race that is a record breaker in so many different ways. books.
In 2007, £46.5 million was raised for good causes by runners, making the London Marathon a Guinness world record breaker as the largest single annual fundraising event in the world. The record was broken again in 2008 when £46.7 million was raised. IIn 2013 there were special challenges for the London Marathon. After the horrible events of the Boston Marathon bombing only the previous week, London security was high. In the end, the race was a great success that passed without incident, with tens of millions of pounds raised by entrants from more 47 nationalities watched by viewers in 150 countries throughout the world. The men's race winner was
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Run, Londoners, run! Taking part in the London Runs is good for your heart and the cause
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Tsegaye Kebede who finished in 2 hours 6 minutes 4 seconds, while women's race winner was Priscah Jeptoo 2 hours 20 minutes 15 seconds, a second outside her personal best. Tatyan McFadden celebrated her 24th birthday by winning the women's wheelchair race, while Kurt Fearnley won an eight-man sprint to come in first for the men. b
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