The streets of London come alive with thousands of runners every spring with many booking rooms at serviced apartments Central London for the world renowned London Marathon. It has also been described as the city’s biggest street party, as people gather to cheer and encourage the runners.
It is a long, twisting 26.2 miles long route which offers lots of opportunities to watch the runners. The London Marathon starts at in Greenwich within the magnificent park overlooking the river. The runners head east to Blackheath, then circle back along the south bank of the Thames through Bermondsey. They cross the river at Tower Bridge, then head down into dockland for a journey around the Isle of Dogs and past Canary Wharf before heading back into the centre of London, running past the Tower of London and the final trek to the finishing line outside Buckingham Palace. When it comes to somewhere to stay it's best to plan now and book a stay at aparthotels in Kensington for the 2018 London Marathon.
The first London Marathon was run in 1981 and was an instant success. Numbers of participants have grown significantly, and now involve 40,000 runners each year. It is extremely popular – this year, 253,930 people sought a place among those runners. Everyone from beginners to professional athletes take part.
There is a lot of fun involved. Many celebrities take part so it is a game of ‘spot the celebrity’. Prominent celebrity runners in the past have included Princes Beatrice, Chris Evans, and chef Gordon Ramsey. This year some of the world’s fastest runners are taking part such as Sir Mo Farah, Kenensia Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge. Many runners are seeking to raise money for charity and often wear incredible costumes such as a London Bus, a giant Shoe, animals, superheroes and cartoon characters. There are even unusual runners such as the police officer who crawled the entire length of the Marathon course dressed as a gorilla, in aid of the Gorilla Organization. It took him six days to complete the course – and raised £23,900 for his chosen charity.
Thousands of people come to watch the marathon and vast sums of money are raised for charity. Over the years participants have raised more than £830m.
So if you are planning to watch the race this year, book an affordable stay at Presidential Apartments Kensington and get to your chosen spot well ahead of race time. It takes the top runners around 2 hours to travel the entire route, but speeds are getting faster every year. In 2017 winner Daniel Wanjiru of Kenya completed the route in two hours, five minutes.
