TCS London Marathon 2027

The London Marathon is normally run on a single Sunday in April. However, the 2027 edition will go down in history for a special reason: for the first and only time, the event will be split across two consecutive days — Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25, 2027 — under "The Double" format, using the exact same route on both days, with a combined total of 100,000 runners (around 50,000 each day). The organizers have been clear: this is an exceptional, one-off format that won't be repeated in future editions, designed specifically to meet the event's enormous demand (over 840,000 applications for the 2025 edition alone, a world record for any marathon). From 2028 onward, the marathon will return to its traditional single-Sunday format.The courseBorn in 1981 from the vision of Chris Brasher — an Olympic medalist who, after running the New York Marathon, wrote an article asking whether London could stage something similar — the route has barely changed in over four decades, and remains one of the fastest, flattest courses on the world calendar (only about 120-140 meters of total elevation gain across the entire race).The start takes place from three separate points in Blackheath and Greenwich — necessary given the huge volume of runners — which merge for the first time just before mile 3, in Woolwich. The opening miles are a gentle downhill through Blackheath that energizes the start, before turning through Charlton, Greenwich, and Deptford. Just past the 10K mark comes one of the day's great moments: looping around the Cutty Sark, the historic 19th-century clipper ship dry-docked in Greenwich, greeted by a wall of sound from spectators.The route continues through Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, with the Shard already rising on the skyline, before climbing toward the race's great icon: crossing Tower Bridge, around mile 12, right before the halfway point — described by athletes from other Majors as "a wall of noise unlike anything at any other marathon in the world." After crossing the bridge, the course heads into the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf, the most introspective stretch of the race between miles 15 and 20, surrounded by financial-district skyscrapers, before passing through the vibrant Rainbow Row in Limehouse, a 250-meter stretch created to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, one of the most colorful, high-energy points on the whole course.Heading back west, the route passes near Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the Shard, and the Gherkin again, all visible together in a single sweeping view, before tackling the short but sharp Blackfriars incline, right before entering the most celebrated stretch of the whole race: the Victoria Embankment, with the Thames on one side and the London Eye rising in the distance, in what many runners describe as the best two miles of crowd support in all of world marathon running. The route passes Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, turns onto Birdcage Walk alongside St James's Park, and culminates with the final turn in front of Buckingham Palace onto The Mall, the grand flag-lined avenue where the finish line awaits.It's one of the 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors, and its list of world records is remarkable: Ingrid Kristiansen (1985), Paula Radcliffe (2002, 2003, 2005), and Mary Jepkosgei Keitany all set historic women's marks here, Khalid Khannouchi did the same in the men's race in 2002, and in 2026 Sebastian Sawe became the first man ever to break the 2-hour marathon barrier on this very course. It's also, by far, the biggest charitable sporting event in the world: it has raised over £1.4 billion for good causes since its founding, and every year hundreds of runners attempt Guinness World Records dressed in the most imaginative costumes and characters.