10 London Marathon facts

It’s Marathon weekend. On Sunday morning
35,000 runners will descend on London

town, from the world’s best long-distance athletes, to the man dressed as a smurf/busty-woman/giant-mouse. So in a tribute to one of our favourite events of the year, here are a few London Marathon facts to mull over.

1. The slowest ever London Marathon time was set by Lloyd Scott back in 2002. Donning a 110Ib deep sea diving outfit, he took 5 days and 8 hours to complete the marathon. Alas, no such feat can ever be repeated – the London Marathon Officials have now set a 24 hour time limit
2. Since the first London Marathon in 1981, 817, 890 people have run, walked, limped or crawled over the finish line.
3. The fastest London Marathon was run by Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai last year. He completed the 26.2 mile event in just 2 hours 2 minutes and forty seconds. Impressive!
4. Our very own Paula Radcliffe holds the Woman’s World Record for the fastest marathon. She set the record in the 2002 London marathon with a time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds. But her most notable performance involves the time she was, ahem, “caught short” during the 2005 London Marathon…
5. …Which is surprising considering there’s 1250 portable loos available. But, then again, it was before the She-wee got popular.
6. Ambulance volunteers keep 2,000 plasters at hand for any injuries along the way.
7. There are 18 “ever presents”. These are the people who have run every single London marathon since its inception.
8. The reason the modern Marathon is 26.2 miles long instead of the traditional 24.8 so that it could end in front of the Royal Box in the 1908 London Olympics.
9. The average female running 10-minute miles will burn 2,777 calories during a marathon. Pasta party anyone?
10. 101-year-old long distance runner Fauja Singh is set to become the oldest person to complete the London Marathon this Sunday. He says he’ll retire from the distance afterwards.

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