London Marathon

The course

An Abbott World Marathon Major.

It begins high and open on Blackheath and in Greenwich Park, three separate start lines falling away downhill and folding into one at Woolwich before mile three. The early miles are wide and quick, the road tipping gently towards the river. Through Charlton and into Greenwich, the course loops the Cutty Sark between six and seven, the first real wall of sound. Then Rotherhithe, Jamaica Road, and the long approach to Tower Bridge, where halfway sits on the span. North of the river the character changes. The Highway carries you east, out to Westferry and the Isle of Dogs: Mudchute, Docklands, and the narrow canyons of Canary Wharf between roughly seventeen and twenty, where watches lose their signal and the miles stop agreeing with each other. This is where London is won or lost. From Poplar the course turns back west along The Highway, past the Tower of London and down into Lower Thames Street, then through the Blackfriars underpass: dark, enclosed, unspectated. The rise out of it at mile twenty-four is the one sting left, and it delivers you onto Victoria Embankment. Then Big Ben, Parliament Square, Birdcage Walk, and the turn at Buckingham Palace onto The Mall.

Start

Blackheath and Greenwich Park, south-east London (three separate start lines that merge at Woolwich before mile three)

Finish

The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace

Shape

point-to-point

Terrain

Flat and fast. A net descent through the first three miles, then essentially level along the river; the most notable rise is the short climb out of the Blackfriars underpass at around mile 24, roughly 2.5%.