Last weekend, the streets of London shut down once again for one of the city’s biggest events: the London Marathon. Beginning over 40 years ago in 1981, the London Marathon has only grew in popularity – with runners travelling from across the world just to run in the streets of London. This year, in 2024, the London Marathon has grew to be the biggest marathon yet – with 50,000 runners braving the 26.2 miles beginning in Blackheath and ending at The Mall, in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.

Competitors varied from the age of 18 all the way up to 91 – showing just how dedicated and impressive mankind is and the ability of running to unite all different kinds of people. With thousands of runners competing in good spirit for a number of charities – the marathon exceeded its past records of fundraising and has, at the time of writing, raised a staggering 67 million pounds.

The marathon saw a number of records, in particular the women’s marathon record was broken by all top three winners: Peres Jepchirchir, Tigst Assefa, Joyciline Jepkosgei. This was a huge success for the Marathon and the winners.

With the likes of TikTok and Instagram allowing competitors to share their marathon journey, it seems as though they have sparked an interest running in the masses for the general public. Almost 900,000 people have entered the ballot for the 2025 London Marathon – a huge increase from around 700,000 this time last year for the 2024 London Marathon. Does this mean Britian will enter a runners renaissance – with hundreds of thousands of individuals beginning the tumultuous marathon training? Could you be one of the lucky few getting a medal at the end of the 2024 London Marathon?