London marathon

A really difficult one to get into via the ballot due to the amount of applications. Good for age, charity and international partners are good options.

London is well served with all the major airlines and of course train and bus. Forget the car for this one.

Big expo held in the outskirts of London at the ExCel which is easy to get to by public transport.

No pre runs, but there are lots of good parks in London so easy enough to find a place to run.

For race day in October 2021 we started our day in central London and headed off to the event just before 8am. One of the benefits from the COVID situation was the small amount of time between arrival and starting the race. The race bib is also your free entry to the public transport system and so after a couple of train changes we arrived at the destination.

The station you get off at depends on the colour of your start wave. So pay attention to the stops and don’t get off at the wrong one. Start wave are further broken down into wave numbers, but that’s all on your bib. For 2021 the bag drop was at the Expo which we felt worked rather well as a opposed to the usual chaos of dropping stuff off.

Arriving at the station led to a good long walk to the starting area. COVID status checks were made then as usual the queue for the toilets. At this stage you start to get an idea of what makes the London marathon different, with people dressed as telephone boxes, airplanes, trees and just about everything you can think off.

A short time speed past and we were ushered into the starting pen and here is where you ditch the warm over cloths and now you look like a frozen runner. And they are off.

Always weird starting these big events and trying to find your pace. Most of the route of the London marathon is dull but the crowds do make up for it. The crossing of Tower Bridge is a highlight but the out to Canary wharf before coming back is very dull and mostly set within office blocks.

The last of the London marathon is where we really see a lot of the highlights of London and this is where the crowds start to get really noisy. Along the embankment, past Westminster then a quick right at the Queen’s house and you only have a very short distance to the finish line.

A great marathon but not the most scenic.

Rather a plain medal was awarded in 2021 when we last did the race and of course a tee shirt.

We stayed at the Hilton on Trafalgar square and it was excellent. Best part of using this hotel was that it was a short walk from the finish line to arrive at the hotel bar. From there to a warm shower.