The London Marathon, Where the Crowds Never Let Up: Your 2027 Guide to Racing Saturday or Sunday

London, United Kingdom

1Saturday or Sunday at the 2027 London Marathon? The Ballot Decides

London stretching a one-day race to two happens only in 2027. The organizers' FAQ calls it a "one-off change of format for 2027 only," and the race goes back to a single day in 2028. The ballot drew Saturday and Sunday together.

Winners were assigned one of the two days, and that date is fixed. There's even a rule that swapping places with another runner on the quiet gets your entry canceled. Time-based entries split in two as well.

In the Elite, Championship and Good For Age (age-group qualifying time) categories, men race on Saturday and women on Sunday. General entrants start men and women together on both days. You don't have to let the day you weren't given go to waste.

You can enter it as "MyWay," the virtual event where you run the same distance anywhere and log a time. One day on the ground, one day virtual. That's the most London 2027 will let you have.

London MarathonSat, April 24, 2027 · D-161 · London, United KingdomSee race details

London, United Kingdom

2Missed Out in the Ballot? Two Routes Still Open for the 2027 London Marathon

For overseas residents who come in through the ballot, the entry fee is £275. That's roughly £195 more than UK entrants pay, and the organizers say the difference includes a carbon offset charge for international travel. Of the five doors, two are open for 2027.

Let's strike off the closed ones first. · General ballot: applications April 24 to May 1, 2026, 1,338,544 applicants, results July 9, will not reopen · Good For Age: UK residents only, qualifying window over · Championship: men 2:38 · women 3:10, applications closed (successful applicants register by November 30) · Sunday charity places: allocated One is a Saturday charity place. Each charity receives its own allocation, and a few of the big ones have already handed theirs out and only take waiting lists.

Fundraising pledges run £2,300 to £2,750 by the charities' own pages, which means raising eight to ten times the ballot entry fee. The other is an official overseas travel agent. The race's designated overseas operator is Sports Tours International, and the list of approved agents by country in Asia includes a Korean company.

The package comes with a confirmed bib, so there's no luck involved, but you have to buy accommodation with it. Whether any places are left isn't published anywhere. Ask the charities and the agents directly.

London, United Kingdom

3From Greenwich to the Finish at Buckingham Palace: The London Marathon Course, Section by Section

London speaks in miles, not kilometers. The distance markers, the aid stations, the advice from the pacer are all in miles. The runner above found that confusing, since the course map on the back of the official shirt gives miles only.

· Miles 1–3 (about 5km): start at Greenwich and Blackheath, wide downhill · Just before mile 3: the three start lines merge into one at Woolwich · Miles 6–7 (about 10–11km): loop around the Cutty Sark · Halfway point: over Tower Bridge to the north bank of the Thames · Miles 15–20 (about 24–32km): Canary Wharf · Just after mile 21: 250m of Rainbow Row in Limehouse · Last five miles: Tower Hill → Victoria Embankment → Buckingham Palace → finish on The Mall The section-by-section advice on the official course page comes from a pacer who has run London six times. The advice is short. The first three miles are wide, downhill and the most crowded, so don't try to weave left and right, and don't pick up the pace on the mile-3 downhill.

From mile 4 to mile 14 it's a gentle net downhill, with one awkward climb just before Tower Bridge. Canary Wharf is the problem. Skyscrapers and underpasses scramble GPS, so for these five miles the markers at the roadside are more accurate than the numbers on your wrist.

The final stretch from Tower Hill onto Victoria Embankment, the pacer writes, is kind to tired legs. · Water: every 3 miles from 3 to 12, then every 2 miles to 24 · Sports drinks: miles 7, 15, 21 and 23 · gels: miles 13 and 19 · Bottle refills: miles 5, 10, 14, 17 and 20 · Vaseline: miles 14, 17, 20 and 22 The runner above came apart just before halfway. Legs that had been holding a pace in the high 4:00s per kilometer locked at 20km, and Tower Bridge was already a crossing on heavy legs.

The pacer's advice not to speed up on the mile-3 downhill only showed its weight right before halfway.

London, United Kingdom

4When the Finish Line Closes: Saturday and Sunday Run on Different Clocks

Even on the same course, the cutoff differs by day. The Saturday finish line closes at 5:30 p.m.

, and the maximum time the organizers have given is 7 hours 45 minutes. On Sunday a secondary finish line goes up at Green Park. It accepts finishers until one second before midnight.

If you plan to walk a lot, the day you're assigned changes how you build the day. Your wave's start time comes by email about three weeks before the race, so work out the gap between that time and the finish cutoff yourself. Until then, the best guide is how 2026 ran.

Start waves went off in turn from about 9:30 a.m., and every start closed at 11:30 a.

m.. Runners who expected to take more than seven hours started from the pink start, with sweepers and bike marshals following behind at 8-hour pace. Moving to a later wave within your assigned start was allowed, but you couldn't move to a different start or an earlier wave.

Of course, Sunday's generous cutoff comes with one condition. Fall behind 8-hour pace and some timing equipment is taken down first, and from then on volunteers scan your bib by hand to confirm your position. You can finish late, but you'll spend longer on your own.

London, United Kingdom

5Bib Pickup at ExCeL London Only: The Day to Clear in Race Week

You can only pick up your bib at the running show at ExCeL London, and on race day you won't be handed a bib. The 2027 show is under consideration to run Tuesday through Saturday of race week. Opening hours won't be confirmed until the new year.

If you can't make it yourself, there's a workaround. Under the 2026 guide, someone else could collect for you if they had a letter of authority signed by you, your QR code, a copy of your ID and their own ID. One person could carry the kit for only one other runner.

The runner behind the YouTube channel Bella Runs, who ran the 2025 race again, advised going early in the week because the weekend gets very crowded. The runner who brought up the cheering at the start of this piece toured Harry Potter Studios on Thursday morning, then headed to the running show at 3 p.m.

, having learned it stayed open until 8 p.m. and moved the schedule up to fit.

Sightseeing and expo, one day. If you're a Saturday runner, there's one more calculation to make. In 2026, collection closed at 5:30 p.

m. the day before the race. If the same rule holds, Friday evening is your last chance.

London, United Kingdom

6Blackheath Station to the Baggage Trucks: Your Race-Morning Route

On race morning you won't be tapping a card at the gate. Your bib is your ticket. In 2026, showing your bib got runners onto trains to the start, the DLR and the Tube, and each start-zone color had its own station.

· Blackheath station — Blue, Green, Yellow; 10 minutes on foot · Maze Hill station — Pink; 10 minutes on foot · Greenwich station — Red; 20 minutes on foot The Green start zone has no bag drop. At the others, you pack your things in the official kit bag with your bib number sticker on it and hand it to the truck with the matching number. The runner got off at Blackheath too and, standing in front of a trailer loaded with hundreds of bags, worried, "How will they ever tell these apart?"

Race guidance says a truck with the same number is waiting at the finish.

London, United Kingdom

7April Mornings in London: The Cold, and What to Pack for the Finish

April in London averages 9.0°C. It's a fine number for running, but the wait in the start zone runs longer than you'd expect. The runner remembers the 2026 morning at Blackheath as quite cold, though anywhere the sun reached felt warm.

By the end of the race the day had turned so hot it was hard going. You pass through two seasons in a single day. So wear a layer you're ready to toss.

If you drop it in the bins near the start line, it goes to charity. If you're running with music, your earphones can't block out surrounding sound: no noise-canceling, but bone-conduction and single-ear are allowed. After the finish you get water, yogurt and a sports drink.

"They're not giving out bread? I'm starving." The runner's gripe is your cue to pack food in your bag drop ahead of time.

The finisher's medal isn't automatic either. Only those who opted to receive one at registration get it. The walk from the finish line to the meeting point can run up to 30 minutes.

Lettered meeting points go up around Whitehall and Horse Guards Parade. With no one to meet, the runner walked straight past the alphabet flags and into the city center, where strangers called out congratulations.

London, United Kingdom

8Thinking Past London 2027? The 2028 Ballot and Time-Qualifying Entry for Overseas Runners

The race goes back to a single day in 2028. The ballot schedule for that year hasn't been announced. The 2027 ballot opened on the Friday before the 2026 race and gave runners just one week to enter.

Can runners living abroad get in on a time? Good For Age is open only to UK residents. Championship entry doesn't require living in the UK, but you must be a member of a club registered with a UK athletics body, and the standards are 2:38 for men and 3:10 for women.

If you're heading out to cheer on family, check the dates once more. In 2027 the elite men's race is on Saturday and the women's on Sunday, so there's something to watch on both days of the same weekend.