Virgin London Marathon 2010

The London Marathon was first held in March 29th 1981. Since this time the event has continued to grow in size, stature and popularity with more than 35,000 runners each year. In all, a total of 746,635 have completed the race since its inception with 35,375 runners crossing the line in 2009.

The course starts in the beautiful Greenwich Park and takes you past London’s famous sights including Cutty Sark, Canary Wharf, Tower of London, Nelson’s Column, Millennium Wheel before finishing in front of Buckingham Palace.

As a fundraising event, there is no marathon in the world that comes close to the Flora London Marathon. One of the dominant images of the race is that of thousands clad in fancy dress, tramping the cobbles in support of charitable causes dressed as rhinos, football team mascots, giant trees and the like. In 2008 £46.7 million was raise for charity and is the largest annual fundraising event in the world!

At the elite end of the field, the 2009 event continued to welcome the World's Greatest Runners.

At the end of 26.2 miles it was the Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru who led them home, the Kenyan winning the fastest men’s elite race since the London Marathon started in 1981.

Wanjiru crossed the line in a course record of 2:05:10 with Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia second in 2:05:20 and Jaouad Gharib of Morocco third in 2:05:27 – the second time in two years that three men have run quicker than 2 hours 6 minutes.

Germany’s Irina Mikitenko defended her title to win the elite women’s race in 2:22:11 while Mara Yamauchi gave more than 750,000 spectators cause to cheer as the Briton finished second in 2:23:12, breaking her personal best by nearly two minutes. Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova was third on her marathon debut, clocking 2:24:24.

Australian Kurt Fearnley beat Britain’s David Weir in a sprint finish to win the men’s wheelchair race in a course record of 1:28:56, while American Amanda McGrory took the women’s wheelchair title in 1:50:39 just ahead of last year’s champion Sandra Graf of Switzerland.
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The London Marathon was first held in March 29th 1981. Since this time the event has continued to grow in size, stature and popularity with more than 35,000 runners each year. In all, a total of 746,635 have completed the race since its inception with 35,375 runners crossing the line in 2009.

The course starts in the beautiful Greenwich Park and takes you past London’s famous sights including Cutty Sark, Canary Wharf, Tower of London, Nelson’s Column, Millennium Wheel before finishing in front... (read more)