The latest edition of the London Marathon will be held at the end of April, and tens of thousands of people will take part.
This year will see the 45th edition of the iconic race around England’s capital.
In 2024, Kenya’s Alexander Munyao and Peres Jepchirchir claimed victory in the men and women’s races, respectively.
There are also plenty of elite races at all levels, and there is a feeling this is the best line-up ever assembled.
Olympic gold medalist Sifan Hassan, world record holder Ruth Chepngetich and reigning London Marathon champion Jepchirchir are set to be involved.
Joining them now on the start line is Tigst Assefa, the second-fastest woman in history.
On the men’s side, Munyao will attempt to defend his win against Olympic champion Tamirat Tola.
Team GB Paris 2024 medal-winner Alex Yee will also make his marathon debut.
London Marathon 2025: Date and start time
This year’s London Marathon will take place on Sunday, April 27.
There are staggered start times, with the elite wheelchair racing kicking things off at 8:50am.
The elite women’s race then gets going at 9:05am, with the elite men and masses starting at 9:35am.
The expected cut-off time for the race is eight hours after the last participant has crossed the start line.
- 8:50am – Elite wheelchair men’s and women’s races
- 9:05am – Elite women’s race
- 9:35am – Elite men’s race and mass start
London Marathon 2025: How to follow
The race will be shown live on the BBC free-to-air.
It will be available on BBC One, iPlayer and online through mobile devices or tablets.
London Marathon 2025: Route
The London Marathon route of 26.2 miles has remained largely unchanged since 1981 as the course takes competitors past the capital’s most famous landmarks.
Starting in Greenwich, those competing will begin near the Meridian Line in Greenwich Park, the world clock’s neutral point from which all time zones are measured.
From there, runners will pass the Cutty Sark and the Shard before crossing Tower Bridge.
They will then head toward Canary Wharf before turning west along Victoria Embankment to Westminster, where they’ll pass the London Eye.
As the race nears its conclusion, Big Ben approaches before it is along The Mall to the finish line, which is close to Buckingham Palace.
London Marathon 2025: What has been said?
The London Marathon event director Hugh Brasher expects this year’s event to break a world record.
The current biggest marathon is Paris with 53,899 people competing, but Brasher foresees this one topping that.
Speaking to Chris Evans on Virgin Radio last year, he said: “For the 2025 TCS London Marathon, we want to break the Guinness World Record as the largest marathon on the planet!”.
“We actually nearly did it this year. We really nearly did it. So Paris currently has the record. And the record is 53,899.
“We were about 53,875! No, seriously, we were about 24, 25 people away from the record. We were so, so close.
“We always let more people in. So we generally let about 65,000 people in to get the number of finishers. And we do an awful lot of predictions about how many people we’re going to get. There’s a huge amount of work going on this… and we’re very confident that we can get another 25 people in the event; we do talk to all the London authorities. But we really want to go over the 55,000.
“We’re absolutely certain that the event can do that. So we’re gonna give people more chance to getting in, right. So again, if you want to do it, it’s going to be the 45th, the biggest, and as long as we beat the record, you will be able to have your Guinness World Record plaque up in your house… and it would then make the most number of people ever having a Guinness World Record plaque, which in itself is a Guinness World Record!”
