London Marathon 2024 guide: When is it, route, records and how to watch
The London Marathon, a fixture of the spring sporting calendar returns this weekend after a record-breaking number of entrants in the 2023 edition.
The race will be the first London Marathon held since the death of Kelvin Kiptum, last year’s men’s winner and world record holder, in a car crash in Kenya.
When is the 2024 London Marathon? Time and date
The London Marathon 2024 takes place this Sunday, so April 21.
The elite and wheelchair races set off at staggered times, with the elite wheelchair men’s and women’s races getting under way at 9.05am (BST). The elite women’s race starts at 9.25am, while the elite men hit the road at 10am. The masses also start at 10am, in waves until 11.30am.
The London Marathon route for 2024: where does it start and finish?
The London Marathon route follows its usual course, starting in Greenwich and Blackheath where entrants are split into three lines which converge at the three-mile mark. The route heads east into Woolwich, then back west towards Greenwich town centre, through Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. From there it crosses north over Tower Bridge, which signals the approximate halfway mark. Athletes then complete a circuit around Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs before the course runs west along the north bank of the Thames past the Tower of London towards Trafalgar Square and onto the Mall where it finishes in front of Buckingham Palace.
To download a map of the course, click here.
Some of London’s most famous landmarks feature on the course.
What are the best viewing spots?
The busiest spots on the course are usually Greenwich, Tower Bridge and Westminster. There are ordinarily many fewer spectators from mile 9-12 (Rotherhithe and Bermondsey) and mile 14-21 (Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs). For the chance to see the runners pass by twice, head to The Highway in Wapping which is used first from West to East and then again from East to West, although this tends to be a popular viewing point.
