When the 2026 TCS London Marathon goes off, the runners at the front will not be guessing at their pace. Race organisers have now confirmed the pacemakers and the splits they have been given for both elite fields, and the numbers tell a clear story. The lead men’s group is being asked for a 60:30 halfway split. The lead women’s group is being asked for 67:30. Both targets sit inside the current London course records.
A men’s race built around Sawe and Kiplimo
The first men’s pack will be anchored by defending champion Sabastian Sawe of Kenya and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who was second to Sawe last year. Their pacemakers have been told to bring the group through 13.1 miles in 60:30. Doubled out, that projects to a finish near 2:01:00, faster than Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:01:25 London course record from 2023 and within range of Kiptum’s world record of 2:00:35.
Three pacers will lead that group, and the names are notable. Oscar Chelimo of Uganda, who is Jacob Kiplimo’s younger brother, is one of them. Andrea Kiptoo of Kenya, a training partner of Sawe, is another. The third is Nibret Melak of Ethiopia. Pairing pacers with the personal contacts of the lead runners is unusual at this level, and the choice suggests London has put real care into keeping its top athletes comfortable in the early miles.
The second men’s group has a 61:45 target at halfway, which projects to roughly 2:03:30. That pack includes Amanal Petros of Germany, Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya. Cheptegei is one of the most decorated track runners of his generation and London will be among his most serious efforts at the marathon distance.
The third group is the one British fans will be watching. Patrick Dever, Phil Sesemann and Mahamed Mahamed are scheduled to run together with a 63:15 target at halfway. Among the pacemakers for that group is Alex Yee, the British triathlete who won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024. Three further men’s groups will hit halfway in 64:15, 65:00 and 67:00.
Assefa, Jepkosgei and Obiri lead the women’s plan
The women’s lead pack is the marquee group of the entire weekend. Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, the defending champion and women-only world-record holder, will line up alongside Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya and Hellen Obiri. The trio has been given a halfway target of 67:30. That schedule projects to a finish around 2:15:00, faster than the 2:15:50 women-only world record Assefa set on the same course last year.
Tsigie Gebreselama of Ethiopia, Miriam Chebet of Kenya and Anchinalu Dessie of Ethiopia have been named as the pacemakers for that lead group. The second women’s group has a 69:00 target at halfway. The third group is built around Eilish McColgan and will aim for 70:00 at halfway, with British 800m runner Alex Bell among the pacemakers. The fourth women’s group, which includes Jess Warner-Judd and Rose Harvey, will run a halfway split of between 71:30 and 72:00.
What the pace plan tells us
London has built a reputation in recent years as the fastest of the World Marathon Majors. The 2023 race produced Kiptum’s 2:01:25, still the men’s course record. Last April, Assefa rewrote the women-only world record at 2:15:50. The pace plan for 2026 reads as a deliberate effort to put both marks under pressure again.
Pacing is not the same as racing. A pace group only works if the athletes in it are willing to follow the schedule, and weather, tactics or a single early move from one of the favourites can pull the front of the race off the splits inside the first few miles. Even so, the targets give a strong signal of intent. The pacemakers have been instructed to run faster than any London Marathon has been run before.
The structure also matters for athletes further back in the elite field. The men’s race has six pace groups, with halfway targets ranging from 60:30 to 67:00, which corresponds to projected finish times from about 2:01:00 to 2:14:00. The women’s race has four groups, from 67:30 to 72:00 at halfway, projecting from roughly 2:15:00 to 2:24:00.
Those groups set the rhythm of the entire elite race, and they offer a useful map for anyone trying to follow the action from the kerb or on television. For runners building their own race plans, a peek at the mile-by-mile course shows where those splits will be hit.
