What To Look For And How To Track The London Marathon Tomorrow

Tomorrow is one of the iconic races in the marathon community – the London Marathon. More people attempt world records in this marathon than any other, and not for just time. There are records of all kinds that are set as runners participate in costumes, go backwards, crawl – anything you can think of. It is also a large fundraising race with many participants toeing the line having raised funds for others.

London Marathon Details

The marathon starts early for those in the US – it will begin in four separate stages for the various categories of participants:

• Elite wheelchair participants – 9:00am (4am on the East Coast)
• Paralympic athletes – 9:05am (4:05am on the East Coast)
• Elite woman – 9:20am (4:20am on the East Coast)
• Elite men and all runners – 10:10am (5:10am on the East Coast)

Though the hour is early for US-based watchers, if you have friends or family running, you will likely want to track them during the race.

Tracking Runners In the London Marathon

There are a couple of ways to track the London Marathon. One way is via the marathon website – here (link will be live tomorrow for tracking) – where you can enter their information and see their splits every 5K throughout the race. The other method is with the London Marathon app – iTunes link – where you can keep track of the runners on the go.

If you have a cable TV subscription, you can also watch the race courtesy of Universal Sports Network. If you want to watch it online, go here and input your sign-in credentials to watch the event live.

What To Look For

London is known to be a popular race for elite marathoners. They always have rabbits/pacers to push the pace during the first part of the race. The pacers for tomorrow are instructed to bring them through the half-way point on 2:03:30 pace overall. This would beat the current course record by almost a full minute.

The African contingent of runners is well represented. Some of the fastest men in the world will battle it out tomorrow, including some who run as teammates. Some of the runners to look for would be the current course record holder Wilson Kipsang, the current world record holder (2:02:57) Dennis Kimetto, the winner of the incredibly-fast Boston Marathon a couple of years ago (2:03:02) Geoffrey Mutai, and several other incredible runners. Look for each of these to make a strong attempt at the win and course record. The prize purse of $313,000 (for all prizes and incentive bonuses) is on the line as well as positioning in the World Marathon Majors.

On the female side, there is a woman who will not be in contention for the podium but one who will likely get more cheers than any other female runner. That runner is the UK’s own Paula Radcliffe. She is the female marathon world record holder and she has announced that tomorrow’s London Marathon will be her final marathon. She will definitely get some well-deserved cheers as she runs through a course that is home for her.