More than 1.3 million people have entered the ballot for next year’s London Marathon. The exact figure, 1,338,544, is the highest in the race’s history and comfortably beats the 1,133,813 entries logged for the 2026 ballot.
Two years ago, the same ballot pulled 578,304 applications. Most were UK runners back then too, but nothing close to what just happened. For the first time, more than a million applicants came from inside the UK alone. Roughly half were women.
The 2027 race is set for 25 April. Successful entries will be drawn at random and announced in July, which is the bit no marathon hopeful wants to talk about. The numbers do the talking instead. Around one in twenty applicants will get a place, slimmer odds than most other World Marathon Majors.
Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, called the total “astonishing.”
“This astonishing total of applicants firmly establishes London as the world’s most sought-after marathon. Nothing else comes close. Our mission is to inspire people of every age and ability to get active, and these extraordinary numbers show the massive draw and power of the London Marathon.”
Brasher was honest about what the figures mean for most people who applied. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “We’re going to disappoint more than a million people, basically more than 1.3 million people, because we can’t fit everyone into the streets of London. There are other marathons you can do, there’s plenty of marathons, but it is just such a unique day, and the crowds and the historic course, it’s just such a special occasion.”
What the 2026 race did to demand
It is not hard to see why entries have spiked. The 2026 edition was one of the most significant marathons ever held. Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30 to become the first man to break two hours in a record-eligible race. All three men’s podium finishers came in under the old world record, which had stood for years. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa defended her women’s title in 2:15:41 and took her own women’s-only world record down with her. Multiple other world records fell on the day too.
The numbers behind the day were almost as striking as the front-of-the-pack times. A record 59,830 runners finished. The race brought in over £87.5 million for charity, about £200,000 more than the 2025 total, holding its place as the biggest single-day fundraiser of any kind in the world.
Asked what people are chasing when they apply, Brasher pointed at the day itself rather than the medal.
“It’s amazing that people want to do it. There are so many reasons to do it, in terms of that joy, that unity, it truly is a day that you feel on top of the world because people are clapping you, cheering you, and in life we don’t get that. People are coming together and you start seeing that as human beings we are far more similar than we are different.”
A two-day London Marathon, maybe
Organisers are still working through whether 2027 can be split across Saturday and Sunday, which would let more people race. The plan, as Brasher has previously laid out, would put the elite women’s race and wheelchair events on one day, with the elite men’s race on the other. Mass-participation runners would be spread across both.
He told BBC Breakfast he is hoping for a final decision by the end of May.
“This is for one year only. We are engaging, and have been engaging for a long time, with a lot of stakeholders. Rightly, they want us to go through a process to ensure what we do is appropriate. People will get disrupted, it’s never happened before on a Saturday. There are lots of plans and mitigations that we’ve got and we would have to do some unique things.”
If it goes ahead, organisers estimate the two-day format would deliver more than £400 million in economic and social benefit and raise upwards of £150 million for charity.
“It would be a one-off. We hope to get there, we’re not there yet. I’m positive it’s the right thing to do,” Brasher said.
For everyone who entered the ballot, the wait now is until July. The two-day decision should land sooner. Either way, London has just confirmed something the running world already suspected. There is no marathon people want into more than this one.
