London Marathon

A record 35,680 runners started the 25th edition of the London marathon on Sunday, beating the previous best from 2002 by more than 2,000.

The London Marathon was established by former Olympic champion Chris Brasher.

After running the New York marathon in 1979, Brasher in a newspaper column wrote, "Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen."

Inspired with the sight of people he questioned "..whether London could stage such a festival?"

The first marathon in London was staged the following year after Brasher studied the race organisation and finance of big city marathons such as New York and Boston, the oldest in the world.

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