{"id":28967,"date":"2026-05-05T11:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/28967\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:07:18","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-2027s-two-day-london-marathon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/28967\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know about 2027\u2019s \u2018two-day\u2019 London Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The London Marathon<\/a> plans to stage a two-day event in 2027, opening up the streets of the capital to as many as 100,000 runners across Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April<\/a> next year. <\/p>\n

Following a record 1.3 million ballot entries for the 2027 race,<\/a> the demand for two days is there, with London Marathon<\/a> Events seeking permission for the \u201cinnovative\u201d format. Hugh Brasher<\/a>, LME\u2019s CEO, insists it would be a \u201cone-off,\u201d but London mayor Sadiq Khan<\/a> is a supporter of the idea as talks with key stakeholders continue. <\/p>\n

London is one of the world\u2019s major marathons<\/a>, and now the home of the first ever sub-two hour marathon in race conditions, after Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha both broke the barrier in this year\u2019s elite men\u2019s race. The event has been growing in popularity and size since its inaugural edition in 1981, with a record 59,830 finishers this year. <\/p>\n

Armed with data on the surge of interest from Gen Z, particularly women<\/a> aged 18 to 29, organisers also believe hosting the world\u2019s biggest marathon<\/a> and bringing people together could act as a counterbalance to troubled times: amid fears over the climate emergency, global conflict, and the negative consequences of AI, to name but a few. <\/p>\n

But staging one mass participation event in a major city is a colossal undertaking \u2013 putting on two, on consecutive days, would be, well, a marathon effort in itself: one that could risk \u201cdiluting the magic\u201d and \u201closing the love\u201d that London has worked so hard to build. <\/p>\n

Doubling the London Marathon: How would it work? <\/p>\n

If all goes to plan, there would be two \u201cmass\u201d starts: a London Marathon on a Saturday for the first time in the event\u2019s history, using the same, traditional route from Greenwich to Westminster, followed by another London Marathon on the Sunday. <\/p>\n

The ballot for next year\u2019s event has now closed, with 1.3 million people hoping to get lucky. Applicants are automatically entered for both Saturday and Sunday events and, if successful in the lottery, would be placed into one of the days, but not both. Additional charity and good-for-age places would also be available on both days. In total, up to 50,000 people could take part on each day, meaning approximately 40 per cent more runners. Organisers would look to achieve balance in terms of numbers across the weekends. But the men\u2019s and elite women\u2019s races would take place a day apart. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work gone into this about how it would both be similar and different,\u201d Brasher says. The job of his team over the next few weeks will be consulting with the emergency services, the police, ambulance and fire brigade, as well as Transport for London (TFL) and the various London boroughs whose residents and businesses are impacted by the marathon passing through its streets. Around 800,000 people travel across London on marathon day, and the pitch to double that next April comes while Tube drivers have been on strike<\/a> in the days before this year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\"AA two-day marathon would feature the first Saturday race in its history (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u2018To show some joy and happiness in a troubled world\u2019 <\/p>\n

When Brasher\u2019s father, the former Olympic steeplechase medalist Chris Brasher, set out with John Disley to organise the first London Marathon in 1981, they did so with the intention of showcasing the \u201cvery best of the capital\u201d and to \u201cprovide some happiness and sense of achievement in a troubled world\u201d. That sentiment, Brasher now argues, is more relevant than ever before.<\/p>\n

Brasher estimates that a two-day event would bring more than \u00a3130m in fundraising for charities and good causes, more than doubling last year\u2019s record, while research from Sheffield Hallam University predicts a wider benefit of \u00a3400m to the economy. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s then the societal boost. As a widely accessible sport that brings both physical and mental health benefits, running has experienced a resurgence in popularity since the pandemic. In an online world, running clubs offer community and social opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt can really bring people together,\u201d said Andrew Smith, a former race director at the London Marathon and now the CEO of the organiser of the Manchester Marathon. \u201cYou can find your team, your tribe. You can be inspired and supported. And doing a marathon is the pinnacle of that. For months, you can train, you can get fitter, healthier, have all those positive benefits, and then you get to the day itself, and you can be the star of the show.\u201d <\/p>\n

Of the 840,000 UK-based people who entered the ballot for this year\u2019s marathon, more than a third were in the 18-29 age group. That demographic, which saw a 105 per cent increase last year and now stands as the second-largest age group overall, has been fuelled by women, who make up the majority of entrants in the 18-29 category. In an age of increasing screen times, there also is a greater draw, Brasher said, for \u201cthese IRL [in real life] experiences\u201d. <\/p>\n

But unless you are good-for-age or commit yourself to raising potentially thousands of pounds for charity, running the London Marathon can be like winning the lottery. The sheer number of applicants means the odds of the ballot are now stacked against you, with this year\u2019s chances of successful entry approximately one in 14.<\/p>\n

\"BestBest foot forward: a surge in interest in marathons and running clubs shows that people are looking to be inspired by the activity (Getty)<\/p>\n

For one year only, though, doubling the London event increases those odds, opening the opportunity to up to 50,000 more people, as well as some who may have previously been unable to race on a Sunday due to other factors, such as religious reasons. <\/p>\n

\u2018We have to be mindful\u2019: London\u2019s bid to stay \u2018loved\u2019 <\/p>\n

The London Marathon retains great support from local residents and the atmosphere created by the tens of thousands who line the streets along the 26.2-mile course is quite rightly hailed as the loudest in the world. But Hugh Brasher also acknowledges that support for the event at local level could be impacted by demanding too much from those who live and work closest to the route. \u201cYou can lose that love very, very quickly, and we have to be mindful of that,\u201d Brasher warned. <\/p>\n

Doubling the marathon would mean an additional day of street closures for residents and businesses, and both may be impacted more on a Saturday than they are used to on a Sunday. The first half of the race, before crossing Tower Bridge, runs through predominantly residential areas, with supermarkets and shopping centres nearby. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, with clubs, organisations, football\u2026 people\u2019s movements are different on a Saturday to Sunday,\u201d Smith explained. \u201cThey have 45 years of experience with how they interact on the Sunday, but a Saturday is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the in-race experience. Would a two-day London Marathon impact the number of spectators who line the course and create its famous atmosphere? It\u2019s certainly hard to imagine the mass crowds being as loud and passionate when spread across two days. An amateur runner could dream of running the course for years and train for months, only to take part in a diminished version before it\u2019s repeated the next day. \u201cWould it dilute the magic?\u201d Smith asks. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know for sure until that happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

Smith echoed the economic, health and social benefits of a two-day event but admitted he was worried by the prospect of \u201cevents up north being left behind\u201d by the world\u2019s biggest marathon commanding even more attention. \u201cI love to use an analogy of a pizza,\u201d Brasher said. \u201cYou can have a seven-inch pizza and people argue about how big their slice is. What I actually prefer to do is say, \u2018let\u2019s make a 12-inch pizza\u2019, and then we can all eat to our hearts\u2019 content.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if the two-day London Marathon proves to be a success, Brasher maintains they would resist the temptation to devour any more. \u201cIt absolutely is a one-off,\u201d he said. \u201cThis absolutely should be properly explored, which is what we\u2019ve been doing for some time. We hope that we get to a position where we can announce it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The London Marathon plans to stage a two-day event in 2027, opening up the streets of the capital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[4122,6947,10091,773,6764,173,2447,6355,529,9846,27,6034,1317,6804,985,6767,771,9850,9847,9848,5,3507,10092],"class_list":{"0":"post-28967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-4122","9":"tag-adult","10":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-color-image","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-horizontal","16":"tag-human-interest","17":"tag-lifestyles","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-london-england","20":"tag-london-marathon","21":"tag-marathon","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-photography","24":"tag-sport","25":"tag-sports-race","26":"tag-track-and-field","27":"tag-track-event","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-women","30":"tag-womens-track"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116521654202926524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}