How do I get a place in the London Marathon?
The 2025 race will feature more than 56,000 participants
- Published
There are several different ways to get on the London Marathon start line next year:
The ballot
Charity entry
Good for Age place
A tour operator
A running club
The race will take place on Sunday, 26 April 2026.
A record-breaking total of more than 56,000 people are expected to take part in the 2025 race, and Hugh Brasher - chief executive of London Marathon Events - hopes it will keep expanding.
He told BBC Sport: "We don't want to disappoint people. We know we can grow the event further. But what we do is do these things in stages."
How does the ballot work?
The public ballot for the 2026 London Marathon opened on Friday, 25 April 2025, and will close on Friday, 2 May 2025.
Anyone can apply to enter,, external and the successful applicants are chosen through a random draw.
The results of the ballot will be announced by email in July.
It doesn't cost anything to enter the ballot, but if you are successful you will need to pay the entry fee of £79.99.
If you choose to donate your fee to the London Marathon Foundation at the point of entry, it's £49.99.
Those who donate their fee will be entered into a second ballot, if unsuccessful in the first.
London is the most popular marathon in the world, and more than 840,000 people applied to run the 2025 race through the public ballot.
Between 17,000 and 20,000 are usually successful each year.
A charity entry
Each year, most major charities are given a set number of entry places through different schemes.
They allocate these places to runners who - in return - agree to raise a minimum amount of money for that charity.
Runners can look through the registered charities here, external and contact them directly to see if they can offer a place.
Good for Age place
A Good for Age place is available to runners who have qualified through running a full marathon with a relevant qualifying time, during a set period.
The qualifying period for Good For Age places for the 2025 London Marathon began on 1 October 2023 and ended on 30 September 2024.
Good for Age places are available for UK citizens only.
A tour operator
For those who live outside of the UK, they can qualify through recognised international tour operators on the London Marathon website.
Through running clubs
Athletics clubs associated with British Athletics may be eligible for club-guaranteed entries.
The number of entries allocated is based on the number of first-claim members (a runner's primary club) over the age of 18 at the club registered with British Athletics.
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