The London Marathon could move to an earlier slot in the calendar to contend with increasing temperatures during the British spring, the event’s CEO Hugh Brasher has confirmed.
The 2025 race saw runners contend with temperatures in the region of 22c (72f), making it one of the warmest in its history, while the 2018 edition still holds the record at 24.2c (76f).
This year’s race, on Sunday, 26 April, has a more favourable forecast for those attempting to achieve personal bests though, with temperatures ranging from 11-17c throughout the duration of the race.
After this year’s Paris Marathon controversially opted to ban single-use water cups and bottles for runners, instead opting for a refill system at various points on the course, Brasher admits London Marathon observed with interest and revealed the climate is a consideration regarding a future date change.
“I think that you have to look at what each city is doing, look at who your constituents are. I think you have to really look at health and safety and the temperatures and how you cool yourself down,” Brasher said on a media call, including The Independent.
“So there are a lot of different things. So did we look at it [Paris Marathon’s policy on plastic bottles] with interest? Yes, is it part of the conversations that we have? Yes. Are we looking at this, and have we been looking at it for many years, and will continue to do so with proper data.
“So, absolutely, the world is heating up, and people go, well, would you move the London Marathon? Of course we would move it. But in reality, it used to be the 29 March. In 1981, Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen [winning the men’s race] and Joyce Smith [winning the women’s race]. That’s when it happened. So, yeah, we look at it.”
Brasher revealed London Marathon had an employee run the Paris Marathon to gain valuable feedback in their push for sustainability, while advocating for the current system, which affords runners Buxton Natural Mineral Water every three miles from 3-12, then every two miles from 12-24.
“You know, you really have to weigh up so many different factors in this,” Brasher added. “And in terms of sustainability, for example, I believe that we’re still the only marathon in the world that makes it mandatory that people pay internationally a carbon removal, not offset, a carbon removal tax.
“So every single person internationally gets charged, and that money goes to remove carbon from the atmosphere. I think that you have to look a lot more holistically and sustainability is people, profit and planet. So you’ve got to look at all of them.
“We have our plans at the moment, what with people being able to drink, douse themselves, drain and drop, we use all recycled plastic bottles. So it’s recycled plastic. We recycle the plastic. It’s circularity. We have a separate cleaning team. Goes back to Buxton. So there’s a huge amount of work that goes on. We have electric, we have solar generators. There’s so much work that we have as a company, you know. We’re looking at finisher’s T-shirts. What material can you make those from? What’s the circularity position that you can do on that it is not just as simple as plastic bottles.”
