Joey: I'm getting so emotional watching the London marathon. Everyone taking part is a winner x

Mr Starr: Sat watching the build up to the London Marathon and it's such an amazing event. I always wonder whether I'll ever do it

Emma Timlett: London marathon - one of the greatest sporting days of how great humans can push themselves, inspire, show character, positivity and challenge their mind and body..... all for great causes!

Francisco Sanclemente finally gets to start the wheelchair race after a puncture forced him to stop his race.

The women's race is under way with defending champion Vivian Cheruiyot seeking to retain her title.

And two-time Wimbledon champion Sir Andy Murray chatted about his fitness and future Marathon hopes as he prepared to start the race.

In his chat with Steve Cram, Farah also dismissed the possibility that, at 36, he might be ready to retire.

"What am I going to enjoy more? Playing for Arsenal? That is not going to happen is it?!," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty

An open-top Bentley ride before the race. An Eric Morecambe-style jig after his jog to victory.

Mo Farah's Diamond League win in Birmingham back in August 2017was billed as his track farewell to his British fans.

Turns out that we might she him treading the Tartan once again.

"If I was capable of getting an Olympic medal no matter what colour it is, would you turn it down? If I am capable then why not?" he told BBC Sport.

"I have no regrets with what I have done but I don't want to look back one day and think, 'that year, I was fit, perhaps I should have gone to the Olympics, maybe I could have won a medal'."

Image source, Getty

Wonder how fast Eliud Kipchoge's world record feels?

At the London Marathon expo, a treadmill has been set up at the pace of his 2:01:39 mark.

Here is Mo Farah mucking around and getting spat out the back like a Gladiators contestant on the travelator. Kids, ask your parents.

Image source, Getty Images

They probably wouldn't have posed for these photos had news that Mo Farah was involved in a fight with a fellow guest at a hotel in Ethiopia emerged 24 hours earlier., external

Anyway...

The men's race is being framed as the world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge against the home-town kid Mo Farah.

But if this were a boxing match the odds would be as lop-sided as before Mike Tyson-James 'Buster' Douglas.

Kipchoge is a three-time winner, the world record-holder and has won nine of his 10 career marathons.

Farah, coming off the back of his win in Chicago in the autumn, has form, but the pedigree is all with the Kenyan.

Still, things can turn out funny.

Image source, Rex

Image source, Getty

The start of the men's elite race is incoming. It has been an unconventional build-up...

Love the Cake and Wine Girls

How do we get an invite to this cake and wine club?

A quick check on where we stand in the various races.

In the men's wheelchair, the front runners are packed together with American Dan Romanchuk at the front...

...while Swiss Manuela Schar has gone out on her own in the women's race...

...and the elite women are the slow and steady. A very gentle pace is keeping the pack together.

There are 196 countries recognised by the United Nations. Nick Butter is attempting to run a marathon in every single one. Extraordinary world-first stuff.

London is on the menu today, but it was Mongolia earlier this month and Israel, Iran and Iraq all lie in wait before the challenge's conclusion in November.

He was inspired to take on this monumental task by a chance meeting with a man who was suffering from a terminal case of prostate cancer.

Read more on his website here., external

And his Instagram page , externalwill make you hand in your P45 right now.

Image source, Nick Butter

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson
Six-time London Marathon wheelchair race winner on BBC TV

The men's elite wheelchair racers are out around nine miles...

Josh Cassidy seemed to get fed up with the pace there, and he tried to break it up, but it looks like it has backfired. David Weir is currently in second.

Image source, Getty

Just a shade less than 55% of the UK applications for this year's race were from people who have never run a marathon before.

BBC Get Inspired has teamed up with Public Health England to bring you the Couch to 5K challenge, aimed at getting you running 5K within nine weeks - even if you've never run before.

Find out how to download the app here.

And who knows where that will lead...

Andy

All your friends and colleagues at Aberbargoed

Jeanette

Props to Francisco Sanclemente!

The Colombian suffered a mechanical problem with his wheelchair at the start of the elite wheelchair race and was left stranded on the line as the rest of the field disappeared up the road.

When his spare innertube proved a bust, it looked like his race was over.

But no! Half an hour after the supposed start he has found a wheelchair and is on the road.

Dr Kiren Collison: After half an hour of watching the marathon build up on TV, I'm finally feeling inspired. Telly now off. Trainers now on.

Make sure you come back to us after, Kiren!

BBC Two

Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray said: "The hip is really good and there is no pain anymore. I'm just a bit weak from the incision in the operation. I'm pain free, happy and enjoying my life. I have been hitting the ball from a stationary position but I haven't been doing any movement. I don't feel any pressure to get playing again but if my body will allow, I will try.

"I'm not a good runner but I came to watch my wife do it five or six years ago and I loved it. The atmosphere was amazing and I would definitely do it someday. The only other time I have seen anything like it was during the Olympics where everyone comes together to support the same cause. I just came to spot my wife, but by the end, I was cheering everyone."

On his former coach Amelie Mauresmo's attempt to run the race in three hours and 15 minutes: I'm not a drinker but we will go out for dinner tonight, and if she beats 3:15, I will pay."

After the rip-roaring record-targeting pace of last year, this year's race is off at a more gentle tempo.

Australia's Sinead Diver is at the front of the pack while the four female pacemakers are all disappearing up the road.

Tor Froud: I have never felt so proud, or so nervous for Stuart Hearne when a dear friend has been through hell & back, but can have the focus to train & run for an amazing cause. Stu, you got this, & I'm cheering you the whole way.

Sheringham Community Primary School: Good Luck to Mrs Blake who is running the London Marathon today!!

Kenya's awesome foursome to the fore.

Defending champion Vivian Cheruiyot is back after her come-from-behind victory in 2018.

Compatriot and three-time London winner Mary Keitany was one of those swept away 12 months ago after her over-ambitious attempt to shoot down Paul Radcliffe's 'mixed race' world record, but took revenge in the New York race later in the year.

Gladys Cherono, a triple Berlin Marathon champion, was the fastest women of 2018, while 25-year-old Brigid Kosgei has won the Chicago marathon since finishing as runner-up in London last year.

Image source, Getty Images