Talk:London Marathon/Archive 1

Comments
Could we have a map of the route, please? :)

I was trying to find a list of competitors/runners and or finishers for the 1983 gillette marathon as my farther competed and all we have is the finishing medallion and would like more information. E mail address yorkie@ij.net


 * Seems like a tough proposition. London Marathon Ltd doesn't have a particularly open website.... you might try the phone number on the following page - http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/media/mediaresource.shtml

What about that bloke that ran it in a diver's costume? Surely he's worth a mention.
 * Lloyd Scott is the "mad charity fundraiser". Good idea. PeterGrecian 14:51, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

What about a list of where the race finished each year ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.12.76.80 (talk) 17:05, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

The broadcasting of the Channel 4 Dispatches program mentioned in the article has resulted in The London Marathon, whose chief executive Nick Bitel is one of Britain's leading sports lawyers, taking legal action over the program. They are also threatening to report Channel 4 to Ofcom, Britain's independent television regulator.

Founder vs. co-founder?
I've moved this from the article:

Its founder was [George?] a BBC Radio Medway News Presenter who enlisted as its architect and co-founder Chris Brasher

This needs to be researched. Paul August 03:13, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)


 * I don't know about that, but it is worth researching as the origins of this are getting lost. For my input, in 1985-7 I was running the youth group at St Georges' Westcombe Park, the parish the slow start goes through after leaving Greenwich Park. The kids were given the Sunday off each year to help run the drinks station just past the Blackwall Tunnel approach road flyover, and came up with the idea that if the grown-ups could fund-raise like that, so could they, could I organise something, please? There was no support from the London Marathon, but the Royal Parks showed me how to get the authority, which I did, and so we had a small sponsored run in Greenwich Park in the early summer. This got talked about in the schools, and the next year the sports teachers got a couple of other schols from other boroughs to do much the same - the year after, the enthusiasm took off and it covered all the London boroughs, and now they have to hold elimination heats for entry! That, to me, is a bit too Organised - sport at any age should principally be about enjoyment, not competition, and if kids aren't being allowed to take part because they're not good enough - which is what this comes down to - then it's contrary to the real spirit of all the thousands who enter the main marathon with absolutely no hope or intention of winning anything, but rather of doing some real good and helping a considerable community spirit. Perhaps it's time to copy the Notting Hill Carnival and split the Kid's marathon away from the Sunday, holding it the day before. The other problem's the admin of the start/finish, as it's that really which forces the numbers to be kept down: starting at Billingsgate doesn't allow enough space, they'd do better to start from London Bridgew with the staging area on the esplanade in front of London Bridge station. That way communications to the start are greatly improved and there's space for many more starters: by all means have a competitive race, but stop using competition as a reason to exclude kids from sport.

is this copyvio?
This appears to be directly from - what's the deal? Spangineer 15:52, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

Scroll down to the bottom of that page where it says "This article is from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "London Marathon". IVoteTurkey

2005 Results
Due to a happy accident I'm actually sat in the Media Centre for the marathon. You heard the times here first :) (We beat www.london-marathon.co.uk  (They are sat on the next table to me )

Advertisement
"Amnesty International needs your support", Not to be a bastard but this sounds like advertisement to me. Should it be removed according to wikipedia rules? Genjix 20:24, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Spreadsheet for creating the graphs
For an easy way to update the graph images, I've uploaded the MS Excel spreadsheet here (description page). The graphs are already made up from the data. --IE 17:24, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
 * The graphs should be a scatter plot with a trend line *or* a bar chart. As it is the graph implies that half way between the 2004 and 2005 marathons if a race had been run a time of 2hr 7 min would have happened which is obviously not what it's meant to show. I can't edit graphs in Excel format I'm afraid, I'll update them to be more meaningful if someone regenerates the data table in an open format (althought if you have done it that far it might be easier just to throw the graphs out again yourself). --88.96.3.206 18:52, 4 October 2006 (UTC)


 * From what I understand the charts would need the lines replacing with broken lines (that is according to the literature the exam board for the GCSE classes I am teahcing require - broken lines illustrate trends while solid lines mean you can estimate the inbetween data. Evil Eye 20:44, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Finishers Medal
I hope the rather low res photo of the finishers medal adds to the article. There is also one of the other side at Image:Flm_2003_B.jpg

Flora?
What about mentioning what the heck the word Flora is doing in the name of the event?!

Sadly, some corporate name tacked onto the front of the event name?


 * It is the 'Flora London Marathon'. That's the name, as they are the sponsors. If you go to the London Marathon official site, you'll also see it listed as the Flora London Marathon. http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/site/ 81.110.14.145 11:02, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Splitting off list?
I was thinking of splitting off the list portion of the article into a separate List of winners of the London Marathon. The idea is to allow for the List of winners to go up for FL and an article on the history / course / etc. to be built up into GA or FA status. An example of the list side of the equation is at List of winners of the Boston Marathon, though of course the one lacking feature there are the excellent graphs of winning times. I'd like to do the same as sort of a model for all of the marathon majors. Thoughts? Geraldk 02:56, 10 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that's a good idea Ged UK (talk) 13:06, 11 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Indeed excellent idea. -mattbuck 14:18, 25 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Dont care either way about splitting - but tables could do with column headings. Like - Year, Participant, Nationality, Time (hh:mm:ss). GraL (talk) 15:16, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Results Query
I noticed that several of the results are in bold but no reason is given why - are these world records/course bests (at the time)? -mattbuck 14:18, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Two hemispheres
The statement that the London Marathon is the only one to be run in two hemispheres is false - the Seabank Marathon also fulfils this criterion. As to verifying this, I can't find anywhere that states it explicitly, but there are plenty of references to the Seabank Marathon online, and to the fact that the route is between Boston and Skegness, and it only takes a look at a map to see that the former is to the west of the Greenwich Meridian and the latter to the east. Chile Nose Jam (talk) 05:18, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

The coordinates for Boston are 52° 58 minutes North, 0° 1' West; the coordinates for Skegness are 53° 52' North, 0° 20' East. It is very tight, but it is correct that the Seabank Marathon crosses the Greenwich Meridian. Kuitan (talk) 16:19, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Ballot entry
Maybe the ballot entry system is worth discussion. In particular the recent farce whereby The London Marathon's systems have failed every year to handle online registrations. The paper system should also be mentioned as its predecessor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.188.192.41 (talk) 15:25, 27 April 2009 (UTC)