TCS London Marathon 2027 entry: four ways in, and only one was ever open to everyone

London, United Kingdom

1Greenwich and Blackheath start areas, and the stations for each

The race is large enough that it cannot begin in one place. The start areas are colour-coded and spread across Greenwich Park and Blackheath; the course description counts three start lines, and the 2026 event guide names five colours in its travel section — Blue, Green and Yellow walking 10 minutes from Blackheath station, Pink 10 minutes from Maze Hill, Red 20 minutes from Greenwich and reachable from Maze Hill as well. None of them see each other until Woolwich, just before 3 miles.

Travel in is free on production of a bib — Southeastern, DLR, the Elizabeth line, Underground, Overground and buses, with an explicit instruction not to tap in or out at any London station. DLR services begin at about 05:30 from Tower Gateway and Lewisham and about 07:00 from Bank, and Uber Boat by Thames Clippers runs every 20 minutes from central London to Greenwich Pier. Start times are listed as 09:00 on the Saturday and 09:30 on the Sunday, marked on the official page as likely rather than fixed, with individual wave times emailed about three weeks out.

The first 3 miles are wide and downhill, and the organisers treat that as a hazard rather than a gift. The pacers’ published advice is not to fight sideways through the field and not to lift the pace on the descent around the 3 mile mark, but to hold a line and settle into marathon pace. The road is doing something for you there that it will ask back later.

London MarathonSat, April 24, 2027 · D-160 · London, United KingdomSee race details

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London, United Kingdom

2Miles 4 to 14: Cutty Sark, a flat road, water and toilets

From Woolwich the route turns west through Charlton, Greenwich and Deptford, and somewhere between 6 and 7 miles it bends around the Cutty Sark. The crowd there is thick enough that runners routinely describe it as the loudest thing they have ever run through, and it arrives early enough to do damage — a mile where the noise makes the legs feel better than they are. From 4 to 14 miles the profile is flat and still, on balance, gently downhill.

Rotherhithe, then Jamaica Road through Bermondsey, and then the one feature of the first half that nobody puts on a postcard: an awkward rise immediately before Tower Bridge. It is short. It is also placed at the exact moment a runner is looking up at the bridge and stops thinking about their feet.

Water is on the course from 3 miles, at 3 mile intervals up to 12 and then every 2 miles to 24, and there is a toilet at every single mile from 1 to 24. Accessible toilets sit at the start and finish, at miles 1 and 2, and at each even mile through to 24.

London, United Kingdom

3Tower Bridge at halfway, and where sports drinks and gels are

Cross the bridge, cross the Thames, and the halfway point is right there — the geography and the arithmetic line up for once. It is the single most photographed moment of the race and one of the few places on the course where a runner can be certain where they are without looking at anything. Then the course does something that surprises first-timers: instead of turning toward the finish, it turns away from it.

North of the river past 13 miles, along The Highway, and out east to Westferry. The city centre is behind you and will not reappear for seven miles. For anyone carrying a bottle or a vest, the refill points are at 5, 10, 14, 17 and 20 miles — separate from the cups.

Lucozade Sport is at 7, 15, 21 and 23 miles, with gels at 13 and 19. Water stations are wheelchair-accessible and volunteers will hand a drink over or take the lid off. Information points and water stations also carry bladder pads, tampons and sanitary pads.

London, United Kingdom

4Canary Wharf, miles 15–20: why GPS watches read wrong here

Miles 15 to 20 are the section the organisers themselves flag as the real test, and the reason is not the gradient. Tall buildings, narrow streets and the Westferry underpass throw a GPS watch off distance, so the official advice is to take the mile markers as the measurement and stop arguing with the wrist. The gaps between towers act like wind tunnels, and the route bends repeatedly rather than running straight.

So the hardest five miles of London are the ones where a runner loses their instruments. The pace field on the watch becomes unreliable at precisely the point in a marathon where people most want to look at it, in a part of the course where the crowd thins compared with Greenwich and Tower Bridge. Just after 21 miles, in Limehouse, the route runs 250 m of Rainbow Row — a stretch of colour dropped into the point of the race where most people have stopped noticing their surroundings.

Pacers run inside their own start wave, carrying flags on their backs with a finish time written on them, which makes them findable exactly here.

London, United Kingdom

5Final miles to The Mall, and the 7 hour 45 minute limit

From 21 miles the crowd thickens again along The Highway, and the last stretch is the kindest piece of road in the race. Tower Hill into Victoria Embankment is described by the organisers as favourable for tired legs, and the route then runs Parliament Square and Birdcage Walk before the final turn in front of Buckingham Palace opens onto The Mall and the finish. The course is graded accordingly — a World Athletics Platinum Label, AIMS certified — and it is worth saying plainly that the noise is not incidental to it.

Cheer zones, live bands and DJs are placed along the route, with charity and local running club support points on top, and runners consistently report that finding a quiet mile across 26.2 is difficult. The finish area is built for what comes after: a Sensory Calm Space, a Parent and Child Space and a multi-faith prayer room all sit inside it. There is one asymmetry in the 2027 edition worth knowing before entering.

The marathon runs on both 24 and 25 April. Saturday carries a limit of 7 hours 45 minutes with the finish on The Mall closing at 17:30; Sunday runs to a secondary finish at Green Park that stays open until 23:59:59.

London, United Kingdom

6Entry routes: the £79.99 ballot, Good For Age and charity places

Now the part that decides who sees any of it. The public ballot for 2027 opened on 24 April 2026 and closed on 1 May 2026 — seven days — at an entry fee of £79.99, with results notified by email roughly two months later. That is the only door with no condition attached to it beyond filling in a form, and it drew 1,338,544 applications.

Good For Age is capped at 6,000 places, split 3,000 men and 3,000 women, and it is open to UK residents only. That residency clause is the hardest line in the system because no training block fixes an address. The published standards for the 2026 cycle ask for sub-2:52:00 from men and sub-3:38:00 from women in the 18-39 band, with more time given to each older band.

Meeting the standard does not confirm a place: allocation runs fastest-first, so the line that decides the 6,000 is drawn by whoever applies that year. Above it sits Championship Entry, capped at 1,200 and split 600 and 600, at sub-2:38:00 and sub-3:10:00. The conditions matter as much as the times — a certified performance from UKA, AIMS or a national federation, current UK athletics club affiliation, and the race run in club colours.

The qualifying window for the 2026 cycle ran 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, and as of the last check on 12 August 2026 the 2027 window was unpublished, with the organiser stating the 2027 standards arrive in autumn 2026. The fourth door is charity: 500 places, with the charity paying £400 plus VAT for each one before a runner is attached to it, and the runner then pledging a fundraising total usually quoted between £2,000 and £2,500. It is the only route where a decision taken this month can become a confirmed place.

London, United Kingdom

7Bib collection only at ExCeL, never on race day

One rule reshapes the trip more than any mile of the course does. The event pack is handed over only at the TCS London Marathon Running Show at ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, and collection on race day is not possible. Somebody else can collect it by following the procedure in the participant guide, but nobody collects it on the morning.

The 2026 running of the show opened 10:00 to 20:00 from 22 to 24 April and 08:30 to 17:30 on 25 April, which is the shape to plan against until the 2027 hours are published. An accepted entry is therefore a day spent as well as a race run: block the show day first and build the weekend around it. The way out is easier than the way in.

The finish is on The Mall by St James’s Park, with Green Park, Victoria and Charing Cross close by and Waterloo signposted; travel is free until 20:00 on the Underground, Overground, Elizabeth line, buses and DLR, Westminster station is exit-only, and Southeastern offers no free post-event travel. The Meet and Greet area for supporters is up to 30 minutes’ walk from the line, with lettered meeting points at Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and Horse Guards Road. Road closures are in place across the day and the organiser publishes an interactive closure map.