Flora London Marathon 2004
London Marathon should justify top billing
LONDON: Despite the absence of world
record holders Paul Tergat and Paula Radcliffe, Sunday’s London marathon
should still justify its reputation as the best of the big-city
mass-participation events.
Kenyan Tergat, who clocked an astonishing two hours four minute 55 seconds
in Berlin last year, has withdrawn because of a calf injury while Britain’s
Radcliffe is concentrating on the Athens Olympics this August... read ...Daily
Times
The Race History of the Flora London Marathon
In 1979, hours after having run the New York Marathon, the former Olympic champion Chris Brasher wrote an article for The Observer which began: "To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. 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." Enchanted with the sight of people coming together for such an occasion, he concluded questioning "..whether London could stage such a festival?"
read ...Flora London Marathon
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Paula Radcliffe sets a new women's world record
as she successfully defends her London Marathon title.
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Gezahegne Abera took the honours in a thrilling men's race at the London Marathon.
The Ethiopian was one of five athletes in with a chance of victory as the leading group came onto The Mall five abreast.
BBC - The London Marathon 2004 - How to run in it
Background
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It is undoubtedly one of the world's biggest marathons and certainly the biggest single one day charity fundraising event in the UK. In 2002 over £31 million was raised for charities by 76% of the runners. This year over 33,000 runners got out their shorts, running shoes, went through 88lbs of Vaseline (helps prevent rubbing and chafing in the wrong places), and 710,000 bottles of water. The average marathon runner loses approx 1.1 litres of sweat per hour and despite this over the course the male runners used 440ft of urinal trough to relieve themselves. So here's your starting point if you want to run, pace, jog, walk or stagger the 26.2 miles which killed poor old Philippides (or Pheidippides), the first "marathon" runner in 490 BC.1
read more BBC - h2g2 - The London Marathon 2004 - How to run in it