London Marathon ballot breaks record with 1.3 million applications

The London Marathon has hit a new ceiling of demand, with 1,338,544 people entering the public ballot for the 2027 race, a record that reinforces how hard it has become to win a place on one of the sport’s most coveted start lines.

The ballot closed at 16:00 BST on Friday 1 May, and applicants are due to receive their results by early July, with places allocated by random draw. London Marathon Events said the total was the first time more than a million applications from the UK alone had been submitted, and it pointed to near parity in male and female registrations as evidence that the race’s appeal now cuts evenly across the field. The 2027 event is scheduled for Sunday 25 April.

The scale of the response overtook the previous ballot record of 1,133,813 set for the 2026 race, further widening the gap between public demand and the limited number of available entries. Charity places remain available even though the public ballot has closed, a reminder that for many runners, access to the capital’s marquee race now depends on routes well beyond the ballot itself.

Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, said the figure “firmly establishes London as the world’s most sought-after marathon” and reflected the event’s broader mission to “inspire people of every age and ability to get active.” The record entry list arrives as endurance running continues to expand in popularity, with mass-participation races becoming a fixture of civic life as well as a test of fitness.

That appetite has been matched by a race that keeps resetting its own benchmarks. The 2026 TCS London Marathon drew 59,830 finishers, a Guinness World Records title for the largest number of finishers in a marathon, and surpassed the previous mark of 59,226 set by the TCS New York City Marathon in November 2025. Organizers also said the 2026 event had already raised £87.5 million, making it the world’s biggest annual one-day fundraising event.

The elite race added to the momentum. Sabastian Sawe became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race, while Tigst Assefa defended her title and set a women-only world record of 2:15:41. London Marathon Events is also still exploring, with partners and stakeholders, the possibility of making 2027 a one-off two-day marathon across Saturday and Sunday if permission is granted, a sign that even the city’s biggest road race is straining to keep up with public demand.