News
Aug 17 How Many Runners Are in the London Marathon? Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the Tokyo Marathon? Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the Boston Marathon? Aug 16 How Many Runners Are in the New York City Marathon? Aug 15 Chicago Marathon 2027 Lottery: What to Expect Aug 15 Berlin Marathon 2027 Ballot: What to Expect Aug 15 How Many Runners Are in Each Marathon Major? Aug 13 Tokyo vs Berlin: Which Fast Major Can You Actually Get Into? Aug 12 How Marathon Charity Places Actually Work Aug 11 Why Do the Biggest Marathons Use a Lottery?
[ Wire ] · Dispatch · Aug 17

How Many Runners Are in the London Marathon?

The TCS London Marathon fields approximately 56,000 runners in a typical year, the largest field of any Abbott World Marathon Major. The 2027 edition breaks that pattern entirely: for one year only, record ballot demand has pushed London to a two-day Double fielding a record 100,000 participants.

How is the London Marathon field split?

In a standard year, London's 56,000 places split across a public ballot awarding roughly 18,000 bibs, Good for Age standards (2:52 for men and 3:38 for women in the fastest age band, with looser standards for older groups), official charity partners requiring £2,000 to £3,000 in fundraising, championship and elite entries, and international tour-operator packages. London Marathon Events does not publish an exact place-by-place breakdown of the split. The 2027 race changes the arithmetic: a one-off two-day Double spreads 45,000 runners across Saturday, April 24 and 55,000 across Sunday, April 25, nearly double a normal field. London Marathon 2027: two days, 100,000 runners covers why organisers made the change and how the weekend is structured.

Has the London Marathon field grown?

The standard field has held near 56,000 for years, but applications keep setting records. The 2027 ballot drew 1,338,544 applications, a fourth straight world record and up 18% on the 1,133,813 that set the mark for 2026. UK residents filed 1,008,091 of those applications, with 330,450 from overseas. Even with the field temporarily expanded to 100,000 for 2027, that growth in applications far outpaced the growth in places. The full year-by-year application record is on London Marathon ballot odds: the real math behind 2 percent.

What does field size mean for your odds?

Not much, on its own. A 100,000-runner field sounds like it should loosen the odds, but London Marathon Events has not published a public-ballot bib allocation or acceptance rate for the expanded 2027 race, so the exact number of ballot places within that field is not known. In a standard year, the roughly 18,000 ballot bibs against well over a million applicants put the odds near 1.3%, among the longest of any Major. The ballot odds at all 8 Majors, ranked lines London up against the rest, and the Marathon Ballot Simulator models how those odds compound if you apply more than once.

London's race page carries the current entry window, and how to get into the London Marathon covers the ballot, Good for Age and charity routes for runners weighing their options beyond the general draw.

How does London's field compare to the other Majors?

At 56,000 in a standard year, London already fields more runners than any other Major, just ahead of New York's 55,000 and Berlin's 54,000. The 2027 Double takes that further still, putting more people on a London Marathon start line in one weekend than any other Major has ever fielded across two race days combined. How many runners are in each Marathon Major? ranks all eight side by side.

Sources: London Marathon Events, London Marathon Events: record 1.33 million applicants for the 2027 TCS London Marathon

Sources London Marathon Events Field size and entry-route figures from this site's own London race page and ballot history, sourced to London Marathon Events press releases (accessed August 17, 2026).