The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to October for 2020, 2021, and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 New York City Marathon, currently branded as the TCS New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons, 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.
Grete Waitz was a Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder. In 1979, at the New York City Marathon, she became the first woman in history to run the marathon in under two and a half hours. Waitz won nine New York City Marathons, women's division, between 1978 and 1988, the highest number of victories in a single big city marathon in history. She won the silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and a gold medal at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. She was also a five-time winner of the World Cross Country Championships.
Joan Benoit Samuelson is an American marathon runner who was the first women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She held the fastest time for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after winning the race in 1985. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman at that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
Elizabeth Nuttall is a Scottish former middle- and long-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1991 World Championships and a silver over the same distance at the 1988 Olympic Games. McColgan earned a silver in the 3000 metres at the 1989 World Indoor Championships. She was a two-time gold medalist in the event at the Commonwealth Games, 1992 World Half Marathon champion and a two-time individual medallist at the World Cross Country Championships. She claimed three victories at the World Marathon Majors: at the 1991 New York City Marathon, 1992 Tokyo Marathon and 1996 London Marathon.
Mary Teresa Slaney is an American retired middle-distance and long-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships and was the world-record holder in the mile, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. In total, she set 17 official and unofficial world records, and she was the first woman to break 4:20 for the mile. She also set 36 U.S. national records at distances ranging from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, and has held the U.S. record in the 2000 meters and 3000 meters since the early 1980s, while her 1500 meters record stood for 32 years and her mile record stood for 38 years. In 2003, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Ingrid Kristiansen is a Norwegian former athlete. She was one of the best female long-distance runners during the 1980s. She is a former world record holder in the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres and the marathon. Kristiansen was a World Champion on the track, roads and cross-country, becoming the first athlete to win World titles on all three surfaces. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished fourth in the first women's Olympic marathon. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she dropped out of the 10,000 metres final while leading. Early in her career, she was also an elite cross country skier, winning several Norwegian titles and a European junior championships.
Lisa Frances Ondieki is an Australian former long-distance runner. In the marathon, she won the 1988 Olympic silver medal and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. Other marathon victories included the 1988 Osaka International Ladies Marathon and the 1992 New York City Marathon. She also won the Great North Run Half Marathon three times. Her best time for the marathon of 2:23:51, set in 1988, made her the fourth-fastest female marathon runner in history at the time.
Jacqueline Gareau is a Canadian runner who won the Boston Marathon on April 21, 1980. Gareau led the women's field for most of the race, only to find another runner, Rosie Ruiz, wearing the traditional victor's laurels when she crossed the finish line. Ruiz was later disqualified after it was determined she had cheated and did not run the entire race. Gareau was awarded the victory in a special ceremony one week later. Her official time for the 1980 marathon, 2:34:28, was the fastest time recorded for a woman in the event's history at the time.
The Women's Marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California was held on August 5, 1984. It was the first time a women's marathon had been held at the Olympic Games. The 50 competitors came from 28 countries. 44 finished the race. The world record holder Joan Benoit of the United States won the gold medal by 1m 26, with the silver medal going to the 1983 World champion Grete Waitz of Norway, and bronze to Rosa Mota of Portugal.
The women's marathon was one of the road events at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome, Italy. It took place on 29 August 1987; the course started and finished at the Stadio Olimpico and passed several of Rome's historic landmarks. The race was won by Portugal's Rosa Mota in 2:25:17, a new championship record, ahead of Zoya Ivanova of the Soviet Union in second and France's Jocelyne Villeton in third.
Marianne Dickerson was a female long-distance runner from the United States.
Raisa Katyukova-Smekhnova is a retired long-distance runner from the Soviet Union, who won the bronze medal at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, behind Norway's Grete Waitz and USA's Marianne Dickerson. She won the Soviet title in the women's marathon in 1985.
Allison Pamela Roe is a New Zealand politician and former long-distance athlete.
Chantal Langlacé is a French long-distance runner who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set a world best in the marathon on two occasions. Langlacé set a world best mark on 27 October 1974 with a 2:46:24 performance in Neuf-Brisach, France, then recaptured it from American Jacqueline Hansen on 1 May 1977 with 2:35:16 in Oiartzun, Spain.
Julie Ann Brown is retired distance runner. She won the IAAF World Cross Country Championship in 1975 and represented the United States in the 1984 Summer Olympics in the women's marathon.
Martha "Marty" Cooksey is an American former long-distance runner who competed in events ranging from 5000 meters to the marathon. She achieved her marathon best time of 2:35:42 hours at the American Olympic Trials in 1984.
Tatyana Pozdnyakova is a Ukrainian, former Soviet athlete, known for her performance in marathons. She is the current W45 Masters world record holder in the marathon. In her earlier athletic career, she had her best success on the world stage at the IAAF World Cup, taking a silver medal in the 3000 metres in both the 1985 and 1989 meetings.
Gerard Helme is a runner from Britain and Northern Ireland who was a top long-distance runner in the 1980s. He was part of the British team of three that completed at the 1983 Men’s Marathon World Championship race.
The 1978 Avon International Marathon was the first edition of the Avon International Marathon, and took place on March 19, 1978, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It was a women-only marathon which had been put on to showcase female talent over the distance, which at the time did not feature for women at the Olympic Games. The race was sponsored by Avon Products, who had covered the traveling expenses for some of the world's best female marathon runners to take part. The race was won by Marty Cooksey of the United States, a relative unknown, in a time of 2:46:16.
