2012 Olympic Marathon Course

The start and end points of the 2012 Olympic Marathon marathon course will be in The Mall

The 2012 Olympic Marathon Course will be used for both the men's and women's marathon races at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The 42.195 km route will consist of one short circuit of 3.571 kilometres (about 2.2 miles) followed by three circuits of 12.875 kilometres (8 miles). The course, which was designed to pass as many of London's notable landmarks as possible, starts in The Mall within sight of Buckingham Palace and extends as far as the Tower of London in the east and the Victoria Memorial in the west.

The route of the marathon has been changed, for various logistical reasons, from that originally envisaged in London's original bid for the games and now breaks with the normal Olympic tradition that the race finishes inside the main Olympic Stadium.

The 2012 Olympic event is the third to be held in London. The stated distance of the 1908 London Olympic Marathon of 26 miles and 385 yards, later converted to metric units as 42.195 kilometres, formed the basis of the standard distance adopted by IAAF in 1921.

The course

The Victoria Embankment will be traversed twice in each lap, once in each direction

The route passes the South Trancept of St Paul's Cathedral and then turns right to pass the West Door and thence northwards across Paternoster Square

St Mary-le-Bow, whose bells are known as "Bow Bells" in the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons", is close to the mid-way mark of the route

The route will pass through the Guildhall Yard in front of the Guildhall

The indoor Leadenhall Market forms part of the route

The runners will perform a U-turn on Tower Hill (foreground), close to the Tower of London

Runners will turn right when they leave the Embankment (right) to pass the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, on the first lap they will run part of the way across Westminster Bridge

The route as confirmed in October 2010 will start in The Mall about 400 m from the Victoria Memorial and will have four laps, finishing at the start point. It follow the Victoria Embankment to The City where it will take a winding route and continue eastwards as far as Tower Hill. At this point the course performs a U-turn and heads westwards, again using the Embankment as far as the Houses of Parliament and thence back to the Mall. The last three laps are identical and are exactly 8 miles (12.875 km) each. The first lap, which only incorporates the south-western section of the route, is just 2 miles and 385 yards (3.571 km) long.

A summary of the course and associated distance points is given below:

Lap	Distance		Mile points	Kilometre points
	km	mile
1	3.571	2.2	1,2	None
2	16.445	10.2	3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	5, 10, 15
3	29.320	18.2	11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18	20, half-way, 25
4	42.195	26.2	19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26	30, 35, 40

Route description

The marathon will start half-way along The Mall and, heading away from Buckingham Palace will proceed through the Admiralty Arch and past Nelson's Column on Trafalgar Square. A slight turn to the right into Northumberland Avenue which drops down to near river level over a distance of 350 metres (a little under a quarter of a mile). On the first lap the runners will turn right and continue along the Victoria Embankment, on subsequent laps they will turn left and pass under the Hungerford Bridge and follow the Thames on its downstream path. The Embankment is the longest "straight" stretch in the race, about 1500 metres on the outbound leg and 2100 metres on the return leg. It leads the runners past Cleopatra's Needle and the heraldic lions that symbolically defend the limits of the City of London.

After Blackfriars Station (at the end of the Embankment), the course climbs up Ludgate Hill over a distance of 1200 m to its highest point close to the south portal of St Paul's Cathedral, around the west end of the cathedral, across Paternoster Square, behind St Bartholomew's Hospital and eventually along a winding route onto Cheapside. On the third lap, runners will cross the half way mark within sight of St Mary-le-Bow and within earshot of Bow Bells. Leaving Cheapside, the route then goes through the heart of the city, past the offices of many of the world's best known (and lesser known) banks into the Guildhall Yard, home of the Corporation of London. From the Guildhall, the route passes the Bank of England and down Cornhill, passing the Royal Exchange on the left. At the end of Cornhill, a right turn takes the runners onto an indoor section of the route through the Leadenhall Market. A few more turns brings them to the circuit half-way mark and onto Eastcheap and on towards the Tower of London.

On Tower Hill, a short distance from the Tower's moat, the course makes a U-turn back along Tower Hill and onto Lower Thames Street at the start of the return leg. Leaving Lower Thames Street, the route reaches The Monument, a memorial dedicated to the Great Fire of London of 1666. After the Monument, the return leg has far fewer bends than the outward leg, as it take the runners along the relatively straight 1600 metre stretch following Cannon Street and back onto Queen Victoria Street. An S-bend takes the runners back onto the Victoria Embankment, at the far end of which are the Houses of Parliament. About 600 metres before the end of the Embankment they rejoin the route taken on the first lap and past the London Eye on the opposite side of the river. On the first lap, runners turn left onto Westminster Bridge, making a U-turn on the bridge before rejoining the main route. On the other laps, runners turn right at the end of the Embankment, and continue past Big Ben and Parliament Square and towards Buckingham Palace via Birdcage Walk on the periphery of St James Park. As the runners approach the palace, another right turn brings the Victoria Memorial into view. The memorial, at the western end of the kilometre-long Mall brings them past the start line which, on the last circuit, is also the finish line.

The distances relative to the lap start point of various prominent landmarks passed on the route are shown in the table below:

Landmarks passed relative to lap start point
km	mi
0.0	0.0	The Mall near Marlborough Road
0.7	0.4	Trafalgar Square and Nelson's column
1.3	0.8	Cleopatra's Needle (outbound leg)
3.5	2.2	St Paul's Cathedral (West end)
4.7	2.9	St Mary le Bow
5.0	3.1	Guildhall Yard
5.3	3.3	Bank of England (Bank junction)
5.8	3.6	Leadenhall Market
6.9	4.3	Tower of London from Tower Hill
7.6	4.7	The Monument
10.3	6.4	Cleopatra's Needle (return leg)
10.9	6.8	Across the Thames from the London Eye
11.3	7.0	Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
12.5	7.8	Victoria Memorial outide Buckingham Palace
12.875	8.000	The Mall near Marlborough Road

Changes to original proposal

When London submitted its bid for the Olympic Games in 2004, the bid chairman Lord Coe said: "The marathon course has been designed to include as many of the city's landmarks as possible". Although the final route is different to the one proposed in the bid, it will still pass many notable landmarks.

Originally the route was to have started at Tower Bridge and finished at the Olympic Stadium. It would have had a 580 m "run-in", three laps of 11.61 km circuiting central London and passing through or close to the Tower of London, the Victoria Embankment, the Palace of Westminster, Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey, Birdcage Walk, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Trafalgar Square, the Strand, St Paul's Cathedral, and the City of London. After the final circuit, the route would then have headed east for 7.34 km, along Whitechapel Road and Mile End Road, towards the Olympic Park and a finish in the Olympic Stadium.

In September 2010 it was reported that the London Organising Committee were considering alternative routes for the 2012 Olympic Marathon as the original route would not be "television-friendly" in London's East-end. After details of the new route had been published, the organisers defended their decision on grounds that the original route would have potentially disrupted other events due to road closures. The changes rerouted the section between Trafalgar Square and St Paul's Cathedral from The Strand to the Victoria Embankment (past Cleopatra's Needle) which would then be bi-directional. It also removed Whitechapel Road and Tower Bridge from the route, while adding the Guildhall Yard and Leadenhall Market. The removal of The Strand from the route allows Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge to remain open to traffic.

On 27 May 2012, less than two months before the event, The Sunday Times reported another potential logistical problem facing games organisers. In light of the size of the crowds turning out to watch the torch relay, estimates of crowd sizes for the marathon were revised and now suggest that up to 1.5 million people might turn up to watch the event. As there is only a pavement capacity of about 150,000 along the key streets of the event, contingency plans to avoid dangerous overcrowding are being considered.

Official measurement of the course

The official measurement of the course took place at 2 a.m. on 13 June 2012. It was carried out by David Katz, a member of the IAAF Technical Committee, using a bicycle fitted with a Jones Counter. He was accompanied by two other measurers: Hugh Jones of London, who had been over the course more than 20 times in the last 10 years since London first started assembling its bid, and Mike Sandford.

Compliance to international rules and testing

All international competitions in athletics, including the Olympic games, are governed under the rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations. The IAAF rules define the standard length of the marathon as 42.195 km and specifically state that the course must not be less than this distance. The rules further state that in Olympic competition the standard distance may not be exceeded by more than 0.1%. In order for a marathon performance to be ratified as a world record by the IAAF, the course must also meet other criteria that rule-out "artificially fast times" produced on courses aided by downhill slope or tailwind: the distance between start and end points when measured in a straight line should not exceed 50% of the length of the course (21.092 km in the case of the marathon); and the difference in altitude between the start and end points should be no more than 0.1% of the course length (42.19 m). World records for intermediate distances (i.e. 5 km, 10 km, 20 km, and 30 km) must meet similar requirements. The rules also state that "the distance in kilometres on the route shall be displayed to all athletes" and require that water and refreshments be provided at approximately 5 km intervals.

A successful test of the course, its technology and technical aspects, was completed in May 2011 when a test event of the full marathon distance was held. The event included thirty-nine elite athletes.

London Marathon comparison

The Olympic Marathon traditionally ends in the Olympic stadium but the annual London Marathon ends in the Mall. However the section along the Victoria Embankment and as far as the Mall duplicates the finishing stretch of the London Marathon.

Though the revised Olympic route finishes in the Mall, it still differs from the London Marathon course which starts in Greenwich. The logistical problems behind the design of the London Marathon course (35,000 runners of mixed ability) are very different to those behind the design of the London Olympic Marathon course (100 top-class runners) and therefore it is highly unlikely that the London Marathon would follow the Olympic route, as happened in Atlanta from 1997-2009. Then, the Atlanta Marathon followed most of the Olympic route except for the start and finish which were in the car park of the stadium, which had since been converted to baseball use.

Previous London Olympic routes

London has hosted the Olympic games on two previous occasions - in 1908 and in 1948. The marathon route was different on both occasions and the 2012 route follows yet another route.

1908 route

The 1908 games were originally to have been held in Rome, but in April 1906 Vesuvius erupted causing damage to nearby Naples. Italy did not have the resources to stage the games and to rebuild Naples, so London was asked to stage the games. At this time there was no standard length for a marathon, and the 1908 marathon course was originally to have been 25 miles, passing through Uxbridge, Ruislip, Harrow-on-the-Hill before ending at the White City Stadium. It was extended to 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 km) to avoid troublesome cobbles and tram lines, because of access restrictions at Windsor Castle and to improve visibility to the spectators, including Queen Alexandra, for the finishing stretch inside the stadium. This distance subsequently became the official length of the marathon. This length subsequently became the recognised course length for a marathon.

1948 route

In 1948 London hosted the first Olympic Games to be held after the Second World War - the "Austerity games". The Marathon started and ended at the Wembley Stadium. It was only three years since the end of the war and London still had considerable bomb damage. Unlike the 2012 games, where the route was chosen to show off central London, the 1948 marathon was run along a route that took the runners from Wembley, through Mill Hill, the towns of Borehamwood, Elstree and Radlett and back to Wembley, thereby avoiding the bomb damage in central London.

External links

• "London Olympic Games 2012 Marathon Route" (PDF). Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved January 12, 2012.