The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it was typically held in April but has now moved to October. The largely flat course is set around the River Thames, starting in Blackheath and finishing at The Mall. Hugh Brasher is the current Race Director and Nick Bitel its Chief Executive.
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger who reported the victory by running from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. More than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.
Eddie Izzard is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.
Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon, three-time New York Marathon champion, and 2002 Chicago Marathon winner. She was previously the fastest female marathoner of all time, and held the Women's World Marathon Record with a time of 2:15:25 for 16 years from 2003 to 2019 when it was broken by Brigid Kosgei.
The New York City Marathon is an annual marathon that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 finishers in 2019 and 98,247 applicants for the 2017 race. Along with the Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon, it is among the pre-eminent long-distance annual running events in the United States and is one of the World Marathon Majors.
The Chicago Marathon is a marathon held every October in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the six World Marathon Majors. Thus, it is also an IAAF Gold Label race. The Chicago Marathon is the fourth-largest race by number of finishers worldwide.
The Great North Run is the largest half marathon in the world, taking place annually in North East England each September. Participants run between Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields. The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster.
Eliud Kipchoge ( EL-ee-OOD kip-CHOH-gə; is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly competed at the 5000 metre distance. He is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon winner. In addition, he set the world record in the marathon with a time of 2:01:39 at the 2018 Berlin Marathon. His run broke the previous world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds. He has been described as "the greatest marathoner of the modern era".
The Hong Kong Marathon (香港馬拉松), sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, is an annual marathon race held in January or February in Hong Kong. In addition to the full marathon, a 10 km run and a half marathon are also held. Around 70,000 runners take part each year across all events.
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a Somali-born British long-distance runner and the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. He is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m. Farah is the second athlete, after Lasse Virén, to win both the 5000 m and 10,000 m titles at successive Olympic Games. He also completed the 'distance double' at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics. He was the second man, after Kenenisa Bekele, to win long-distance doubles at successive Olympics and World Championships, and the first in history to defend both distance titles in both major global competitions – a feat described as the 'quadruple-double'. Since finishing 2nd in the 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Farah had an unbroken streak of ten global final wins. The streak ended in Farah's final championship track race, when he finished second to Ethiopia's Muktar Edris in the 2017 5000 metres final. In his final track race, the 2017 Diamond League Final in Zurich in August 2017, Farah gained his revenge, edging out world champion Edris to win his only IAAF Diamond League title at 5000 metres.
Galen Rupp is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, and 2021 in Tokyo. In London, he won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters, and in Rio de Janeiro, he won the bronze medal in the men's marathon. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the US Olympic trials in Atlanta on February 29, 2020, in a time of 2:09:20, qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he took 8th place.
Florence Jebet Kiplagat is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. She is a two-time world champion, having won at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. She was the world record holder for the women's half marathon with a time of 1:05:09 hours until it was broken by Peres Jepchirchir on 10 February 2017 at the RAK Half Marathon.
Desiree Nicole Linden is an American long-distance runner. She represented the United States in the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's marathon. In 2018, she won the Boston Marathon, becoming the first American in 33 years to win the woman's category in the event. She holds the women's 50K world record of 2:59:54.
Bat-Ochiryn "Ziggy" Ser-Od is a Mongolian long-distance runner who competes in road races, particularly the marathon. He represented his country in the marathon at the Summer Olympics in 2004, 2008 and 2012 where he also was flagbearer. A member of the Morpeth Harriers running club, he divides his time between his native country and Gateshead in England.
Michael Roeger is an Australian T46 athletics competitor. He competed at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics athletics in middle distance and marathon running events. He has won one gold and three bronze medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. His gold in the Men's T46 marathon at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championshipswas held as part of the London Marathon, set a new world record.
Rupa Asha Huq is a British Labour Party politician, columnist and academic. Elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 general election, she was formerly a senior lecturer in sociology at Kingston University.
Jonathan Stead (GBR)
Matthew Kiprotich Kimutai (KEN) [1] 
Ben Siwa (UGA)