The London Marathon, the last of the huge spring marathons, has just announced a postponement. The new date is now October 4, 2020. Here are some of the details you will need to know if you had your travel booked for the London Marathon.
The London Marathon Postponed
Link: London Marathon Postponement Statement
The new date of the London Marathon is October 4. Except for the Jerusalem Marathon (November 6), this is the latest new date of this year’s marathons. But, the fall dates were getting extremely crowded with marathons so it was a good idea for the London Marathon organizers to grab a date quickly.
Here is some of the information from London Marathon organizers:
Information for runners with a place in the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon
Please note: the following is for information and no action should be taken by runners at this point.
Every runner with a place in the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon will be able to use their place in the rescheduled event on Sunday 4 October without any further payment.
All runners who have a place for the 2020 event and who choose not to take part (or are unable to do so) in the rescheduled event on Sunday 4 October will receive a refund of their 2020 entry fee or, if they wish, they may donate their 2020 entry fee to The London Marathon Charitable Trust.
Runners who do not take up one of the above options (with the exception of those who acquired their entry through a charity or sponsor) will be able to defer (rollover) their entry to the 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon, scheduled for Sunday 25 April 2021, on payment of the entry fee for 2021, following the standard deferment process. Charity and sponsor places belong to those organisations, rather than the individual runner.
Charities and sponsors with runners who are unable to take part in the postponed race will be able to substitute other runners for the rescheduled 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday 4 October. London Marathon Events will contact charities to outline the process and timescales in due course.
The Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships will take place within the rescheduled event and qualified runners will be automatically entered into the rescheduled event. If qualified runners cannot take part on Sunday 4 October, they will be offered a full refund. It is not possible to defer these places to 2021.
Please note that runners who have already withdrawn from the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon and rolled over their entry to 2021 will be offered the option to take part on Sunday 4 October or to keep their entry rolled over to 2021.
Travel Plans
I have a whole post about what your next steps are if your marathon has been cancelled or postponed so make sure you check it out here.
But, I will say that the first thing you are going to want to do is to take care of your flight arrangements. Hold times are long but all the US airlines (and many international airlines)have made it possible to change flights that were booked before March for travel through the end of April.
I would normally suggest to wait on the changing of flights since you have time but you will need to pay a fare difference and the more people that book for October edition, the higher the fares will go. But, if your airline only covers waivers through April 30 and your return was after that date, wait a few days to see if airlines will update for London to allow for waivers that have returns after April 30.
Next, take care of your hotel booking. I will update later with more links but hotels are allowing even non-refundable rates to either be cancelled/changed or giving points in lieu of getting your money back.
This is developing – more information will be added as it comes.
