London Marathon 2025 Panic!

Oh that's a shame. But the best decision for your future health - there's always another race. I know London is the big one you won't want to miss though. Mixed feelings when you're watching it on tv I expect

Best of luck for recovery & you can have a nice long base build into winter

Have a look at jeffing technique. Maybe start with running 3 or 5 minutes, walk 1-2 minutes and go from there

This is great advice! 👏

before you defer, everyone has a setback in their training as I don’t think it’s possible to get through all the training without illness/injury.

if it gets up to a month of no training then consider it, but I don’t think you should give up yet. Just accept the training schedule may need to change a bit. If you want to DM me to chat more feel free! Part of the training in my opinion is also dealing with the psychological challenges of thinking you can’t do it because your training hasn’t gone exactly as you wanted!!

@GE237 I have just looked again and it seems that they email when deferrals are open so keep checking your inbox

One tip from me is do a 20 week programme but start at week 3 or 4 to build in that buffer.

This. Also, start from a decent base - so, say a spring marathon having run an autumn half and kept up the mileage.

While cardio fitness wise it's possible (if very hard! to go from zero to marathon in 20 weeks, the reality is that it's tough on your body and your musculoskeletal side of things if you're not used to distance running.

I've lost count of the number of people I know who think they're smashing the training cycle and then end up injured (usually a knee or a stress fracture) when you get into the 3+hr long runs.

Also, don't underestimate the importance of doing strength work and yoga/pilates etc on top of the runs. I didn't for years but noticed a real reduction in injuries and niggles once I made it a proper part of the training cycle and not just a 10- minute stretch.

Good luck with whatever you decide, OP. London is a great race to run, so putting yourself in the best position to enjoy it seems sensible.

I thought so - yes as you've discovered its usually not that simple.

Such a shame that illness has ruined your buildup.

I agree with @FeelinTwentySixPointTwo that if you can defer you should.

For such an iconic race (which I've never done, loads of ballot entries and never got GFA!) you want to give it your best shot.

One tip from me is do a 20 week programme but start at week 3 or 4 to build in that buffer. There's always something that comes along to derail your progress.

Mine was later than now but it was pretty simple you just have to pay again next year!

The relief when the physio told me it wasn't the best idea to take part as I'd been thinking the same thing and went home and did it so I wouldn't be tempted to carry on training 🤣

The year I got knocked down at mile 4 though I was stupid and carried on to the finish and did some right damage to myself but that's a different story.....

www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/london-marathon/unable-take-part

This is what is currently on the deferral page, I think I was looking too early before because it has changed. However, there still is no actual way to defer yet, it just says the option is available in March. Sounds promising though at least, I will definitely be trying to defer my place. I was gutted to miss it, I'd got up to 25kms in training runs.

@FeelinTwentySixPointTwo @JollyHostess101 thanks- I did try this but couldn't find out how to do it.

The stretch around the Isle of Dogs was hell on earth but then it all picked up after I took some strong painkillers 😂

I feel like that bit always sucks because psychologically it's so hard to turn away from the finish and run a giant loop back to where you started. When I did it it started hailing just as I turned off Tower Bridge and I was like "seriously??"

As others have said, it really depends why you're doing it! My training for London was thrown off hugely by an injury so my longest run prior to marathon day was 13 miles. I did OK for the first half of the race, using some preventative walking-running. The stretch around the Isle of Dogs was hell on earth but then it all picked up after I took some strong painkillers 😂

If you want to get a particular time then I'd say definitely defer if you can. But if you aren't bothered about time (or can't defer) then you should totally go for it. The atmosphere and experience is incomparable and was probably at least, if not more, meaningful to me than feeling that I'd "done a marathon" (it was my first - and still only marathon). On the amount of training you've done, I'm sure you can get round. It just might not be particularly fast.

One option would be to change up your training now to emphasise recovery. So rather than going out, trying to run 18K on an unwell body, failing and stressing, try some cumulative fatigue work. Can you run 10k? Try splitting your 18k run to do 10k on one day, then 10k the next. The microbreak of 24 hours will allow your lungs and CV system to adapt to the pressure, support healing taking place in your body, reduce fluid build up which should support your body, but still delivering the same overall training effect.

The last marathon I ran, I didn't run a single training run longer 15 miles. But I did do 10 miles one day, 10 miles the next for my longest training run - so ran more often for shorter distances. This was the most successful marathon I'd had in terms of strength, speed of recovery, consistency of splits and overall pace.

You can defer up until the night before unless they've changed it recently!!

This is what it says on the website:

Places via the ballot, running clubs and stakeholders
If you secure your place through the TCS London Marathon Ballot or have a guaranteed place from a running club or stakeholder (such as a local authority, emergency service, volunteer group or another group), you can defer your place to the TCS London Marathon the following year. You’ll still need to pay the entry fee for the following year's event to secure your deferred place and we’ll email you with details of how to do this

Not sure if any deadlines have passed though. I've never had a ballot place so I'm not clear on the fine print.

I do t think you can defer once you've accepted a place- I was in similar position, I was really unwell over Christmas and have just had to accept my place is gone. The opportunity to defer is at the point places are allocated as far as I am aware, you can't defer at this stage? Although happy to be proven wrong because I'll defer mine as well!

So for most other races I'd say "just do it anyway" but London is a bit different as it's so difficult to get a place that it is often a once in a lifetime or at least once per decade race

Agree. Unless you can guarantee yourself a place with GFA or champ entry then London is near-impossible to get into. Presuming this is a ballot place, OP, I would defer to 2026 and give yourself chance to have a decent run, rather than struggling round this year.

Realistically, your training is far too far off course to get it back on track for this year. You could spend the next six weeks upping time on feet, but to get from 8/9 miles where you were before your illness, to being able to comfortably be on your feet for 3+ hour long run/walks by the end of March, is a huge ask.

London is a brilliant event so if I were you I'd want to have a proper go at it next year rather than struggle round and potentially have a really miserable time this year.

So for most other races I'd say "just do it anyway" but London is a bit different as it's so difficult to get a place that it is often a once in a lifetime or at least once per decade race. On that basis, if I was you ( and I appreciate I'm not) if I could defer my place I would, using the time to build a really solid base this year, whereby i'd be comfortably doing a half at slightly faster than marathon pace by October and then build to marathon from that.

If you can't defer, the above is irrelevant and I'd do it anyway and just train as much as I could between now and the race, albeit with a good 2 week taper and then employ some sort of run/walk or pacing strategy so that the last 10km aren't too unbearable.

In general I don't love 16 week plans because particularly at this time of year, you inevitably get ill or injured which writes off a couple of weeks, and there's not enough slack or foundational work built in.

My PB is just under 5 hrs doing run walk after an injury!!

You'll have the best day there's something very special about London!!