The First London Marathon

On the morning of Sunday the 29th March 1981, a cold drizzly day almost seven thousand people set off on the biggest road race Britain had ever seen.  It  took over the streets of  London from Greenwich to the Mall. The eventual winners American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen crossed the line fraternally hand in hand at 2 hours 11 minutes and 48 seconds.  Joy Smith from Great Britain was the first woman to cross the finishing line.

Marathon Distance

The distance run by marathon runners today is exactly almost the same as that run by the Greek messenger Phidippides who ran 26 miles to Athens from the battle of Marathon 2500 years ago to proclaim a Greek victory and then dropped dead from exhaustion.  Just 365 yards were added for the 1908 Olympics so the finish line would be at Buckingham Palace so Buckingham Palace could have a proper view of the ending and it still does – on the Mall.

Today’s London Marathon has grown into one of the great days in the sporting calender, highly organised, cleverly marketed and with over 30,000 runners the London Marathon is the biggest single one day charity event in the world and the largest fundraising event in the UK.

In 1881 6700 runners started and 5300 finished the race.

The marathon attracts both professional atheletes and fun runners to the capital and flights to London are usually fully booked from overseas competitors travelling to join the race.

The man that started it was already a British sporting hero, former olympic medalist Chris Brashire who had been the pacemaker for Roger Banister in his famous four minute mile.

The marathon’s co founder was another athelete the bronze medal winner in the 1952 olympic steeplechase John Disley.

They both wanted to capitalise on the popularity of the phenomenom of jogging and looked to America for inspiration and Chris took part in the 1979 newly created New York Marathon who was impressed that the giant city was transformed for one day into a place where everyone loved each other and thought well why don’t we try it in London?

Fun Ways of Fundraising

Putting the fun in fundraising the marathon we felt it kind to highlight this unsuccessful applicat to this years marathon, Bob, who on failing to get a place decided to look for sponsorship for NOT running the London Marathon

London Marathon Runner in Heart Costume