London Marathon 2022 Accommodation

[BlessedMog]

Afternoon everyone,
Hope you are all enjoying/surviving the weather. I have a place to run in the London Marathon this year which is very exciting as well as pretty scary. This will be my first time and I am trying to sort out logistics for the weekend. Does anyone have any advice of where to stay, there will be four (husband, two adult kids) of us travelling down from the Midlands. I know I’ll need to collect bib number which I plan to do on the Friday. After that I’m a bit unsure what to do. Thinking Airbnb but not sure how close I need to be to Greenwich and what transport options are like on the day, shuttles etc. If Any advice on logistics/tips would be very much appreciated. Hope I haven’t left it too late! Thank you.

So basically you need to decide if you want to stay near the start or near the end!

We stay near Greenwich because of needing to get the bib number the day before and because we can drive up from the South East. This also means we can leave luggage in the car on the morning of and head straight back after a tube back from the finish.

So last year we stayed at Intercontinental O2. We got the cable car to Excel for bag drop/bib collection (leave LOTS of time for this if they do the bag drop the same way as last year, we queued for 2 hours… if they go back to the old method, this process is easy!) cable car back and plenty of restaurants in the o2 for easy carb loading!

morning of we had breakfast in hotel, then got the tube 1 stop to Canary Wharf, then short queue to get on the DLR to the start line (all tfl is free for runners on the day). Finished the race and our charity had a reception space- sometimes these have showers sometimes they don’t, this time didn’t but was able to change, get photos, food and a massage and sit down and rest for a bit.

Then tub back to o2, had a sit down meal before jumping in the car and driving home.

My best bit of advice is make post race as easy as possible for yourself; London is busy, your phone may die or be out of battery, pre-arrange where you will meet family afterwards. I find that I lose my mind a bit after such a long run and struggle to work out logistics etc so need all the end arrangements to be sorted 🙈. Also, you might struggle to walk if you’re anything like me 😂

other than that, see you at the start line for one of the best experiences of your life!

I would stay nearer the finish especially if you are staying on the night after the race. Transport to the start is easy and much better to navigate with fresh legs.

I would advise against airBnB. Lots of marathon runners had their accommodation cancelled at short notice at the last event. We always book a Premier Inn.

Thanks for the responses so far and good point re Airbnb. I think the Intercontinental is fully booked but may give them a call to see. am a novice both in the actual the marathon running as well as navigating around London. The last thing I want in the day is to be stressing about getting to the start. I’m sure I’ll be panicking enough about the actual event. Thanks again.

I recommend the Good Hotel all the time. It’s on a boat next to the Excel and is fab. I used to live near there so my parents used it a lot when visiting.

I am also doing London this year. How’s your training going and what are you doing in this heat? I managed a 12 mile run at 6am on Tuesday which wasn’t too awful. Don’t think I’ll run again until next Friday.

I'm doing it too. I live about 40 mins from London on the train, so was planning on just going up early Sunday and coming home after.

I definitely think that you need to stay at a hotel near the end of the marathon not the start.
At the end there are no taxis etc and after 26.2 miles you may be soaking wet or feeling unwell and you will definitely ache so the thought of a long walk or even worse, a tube station with steps is not something you will want to do . So the prime goal is to get back to your hotel to lie down or cool down.
There are special trains laid on to get the runners from central London into the area, and lots of hotels do marathon packages with coaches to the start in the morning and sometimes back to the hotel in the evening.
The first time, we did the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury marathon package, which worked out at £150 per night per room, including breakfast for two and coach to start line. It saved us worrying about logistics and it was nice to be with other runners.
Last time we did the Mint hotel Westminister......full of marathon runners on the day and in the evening so it had a great buzz and it is only a short walk from the finish line. On the day: walk back to Westminster station, get the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf, change to the DLR line and get the DLR to Greenwich station. There were marshals at the exits from the station and on the routes to the Start Assembly Areas. It was a 10 min walk from the finish line back to the hotel. No steps involved.

Great, thank you for the hotel recommendation, I’ll have a look at that one too.

In terms of training, I did a half (my first) a few weeks ago and 8 miles yesterday which was ok as was in a park and fairly shaded. Today has been spent mostly looking at training schedule as well as hotels whilst in the garden with a glass of wine.
Not sure it’s written in the plan but that’s ok! I think I’ll have the first part of this week off and take it from there. Far too hot for me.
It’s taken me a while to get my head round the fact that this marathon is happening. Booking hotels and transport makes it even more real which is scary but I need to commit to it, so here we are. Hope your training is going well. Is it your first one too?

Hi @Fivemoreminutes1 ,
Thank you for this. Lots of practical tips from someone in the know, which is just what I need.
Hopefully the hotels that you mentioned have availability. The package/shuttles sound perfect.
I’ll no doubt be back with more questions for everyone if that’s ok. Finding it all a bit overwhelming today perhaps it’s the heat. Thanks again.

I stayed in a Holiday Inn on the package my first time and ended up being dropped at the start ridiculously early with hours to wait around trying to keep my nutrition up!

i have run 3 and find Tubes no issue after (I am slow so they are not busy!) but I always pick something on a direct line, not involving changes! We come home that night but always have a driver that hasn’t run. If we were further than 2 hours away we would stay over!

Thanks everyone. In terms of packages, when looking at some of the hotels mentioned I can’t see anything online specifying marathon or drop off. Is this added nearer the time or should I be looking for somewhere that mentions it now? If anyone wants to send links gratefully received. @user1471548941on the day I’ll be no rush either so good to hear tubes run well.

Currently I’ve only found this package www.happydayscoaches.co.uk/INFO/MARATHON.php