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London Marathon 2009
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London Marathon
Date: April 26, 2009
London Marathon is an annual event. After former Olympic champion Chris Brasher returned from New York Marathon feeling exhilarated, the city of London got its first marathon as he wanted to make the same event happen in his home town.
In the 1908 Olympics, the distance was 42.195 km as opposed to the original distance of 39.90 km as was in the first modern Olympics in Athens because King Edward VII wanted the marathon to end in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium for the queen to see and started in the courtyard of Windsor Castle.
In 1981 the first London Marathon appeared and since then it has been widely popular. More than 34,000 runners out of 92,000 applicants finished the race on Sunday April 13, 2008 making it the third largest in the London Marathon history. In 2009, the race will be held on Sunday April 26. Each year almost a million of people come to watch the race.
The London Marathon is described as ‘An Historical Jog Around London’ because it starts from Greenwich/Blackheath to Buckingham Palace and covers a number of famous London landmarks, including Tower of London, London Eye and the 140-year-old clipper ship, Cutty Sark. Along the River Thames on the south side and then the north side after crossing the river by the famous Tower Bridge runs the course of the Flora London Marathon which is fast and flat.
Flora London Marathon claims to be the largest annual fundraising event in the world by organizers as fundraising plays a big role. Participants have raised a total of GBP 315 million for charity since the beginning in 1981. Some of the charity runners dress up in fancy costumes in order to attract more attention and especially more funds. For example, you will see runners dressed up as bananas, rhinos and Darth Vader. The Flora London Marathon is on par with marathons in Berlin, Boston, Chicago and New York part of the series, World Marathon Majors and athletes earn points according to their finish place in the participating races.
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