London Marathon Ballot 2025: Are You In?!

A whopping 840,318 of us applied to the ballot to run the 2025 London Marathon, and on Wednesday June 26th the names were selected and the confirmation emails were sent: Did you get in?

IS IT CONGRATULATIONS OR COMMISERATIONS?!

The 840,318 people in the ballot is the most that have ever tried to enter a marathon, and it’s over 250,000 application more than last year (people really want to run the London Marathon!). That’s incredible, but it doesn’t come with good odds of your name being drawn…

The 2024 London Marathon was the largest on record, with over 53,000 runners completing the race. They got their place on the start line via several different methods: most of them run for charity, the fastest runners got a championship entry, there are good for age entries for speedy runners, running clubs get a few entries, some entries come via international tour operators, and the rest from the ballot – there are fewer than 20,000 places available in the ballot (so that’s about a 2% chance for those in 2025’s ballot!).

The drawing is done completely at random, and whether successful or not you’ll be notified by email. But what did your email say?!

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU GO INTO THE LONDON MARATHON. NOW WHAT?

You’re in! Lucky you!

If you live in the UK and chose to donate for entry fee, then you’ll receive a payment receipt and a confirmation email. Now all you need to do is start thinking about when you want to begin your training!

If you didn’t choose to donate your entry fee, or if you live outside of the UK, then you’ll need to pay your entry fee and your email will tell you exactly how to do that (just make sure you pay before the deadline or you’ll lose your spot!)

And if you want to get excited for your race, then here’s Sarah’s experience of running the 2024 London Marathon!

COMMISERATIONS, YOU DIDN’T GET INTO THE LONDON MARATHON. NOW WHAT?

This one’s for the 98% of us who weren’t successful in the ballot! But there are still ways to run the London Marathon, or there are great alternative marathons to consider.

You can still apply to run the London Marathon for a charity. Look through the London Marathon charity listings, find a cause which is important to you, and find out what it takes to secure your charity place, and the fundraising commitment you need to me (most require a minimum of £2,000).

The charity route is a great way to run the London Marathon and you’ll contribute to what is consistently the annual single-day event which raises the most money for charity.

You could also sign up to run the event virtually, completing a marathon anywhere you like on Sunday 27th April 2025. 

Are you a faster runner and have you already run a good marathon time? If so, you could qualify with a Good For Age entry. Details are here for London Marathon GFA and you have until September 30th 2024 to run a qualifying time, before applying later in the year.

If you want to run an alternative marathon, then April is a great month with several big marathons in the UK and Europe, including: 

• Brighton Marathon (6 April 2025)
• Newport Marathon (13 April 2025)
• Manchester Marathon (27 April 2025)

• Milan Marathon (6 April 2025)
• Vienna Marathon (6 April 2025)
• Paris Marathon (13 April 2025)
• Rotterdam Marathon (13 April 2025)

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Were you successful in the ballot for London Marathon 2025? Are you excited or terrified?! And if you were unsuccessful, then do you have another race that you’d like to run?