London Marathon: Long distance information

Friday 11 April 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Since the first London Marathon in 1981, the total number of runners who have completed the course is 323,613.

500 stretchers are on hand to carry away any casualties from among the runners or spectators.

The fastest time in the men's race was set by Britain's Steve Jones in 1985, who finished the 26 miles in 2hr 8min 16sec. Fellow Briton, David Holding, won last year's wheelchair race in 1:43:48.

The St John Ambulance will have 1,500 volunteers on standby, plus 10 resuscitation teams equipped with the latest defibrillators.

The men's world marathon record is 2:06:50, which was set by the Ethiopian Belayneh Densimo in Rotterdam in 1988.

First aid materials include 88lbs of petroleum jelly and 5,000 cotton wool balls.

The number of entrants accepted to run tomorrow is 39,250.

Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen set the women's world record of 2:21:06 in the 1985 race.

In 1983, there were 19 starters for the first wheelchair marathon, last year the figure was 45.

It takes 100 litres (about 25 gallons) of blue paint to mark the course, which has 23 water stations at one mile intervals after the first three miles.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in