"Buckingham Palace and appear on the balcony, from where in 1953 they watched a flypast by the Royal Air Force. During the appearance, the monarch wears the Imperial State Crown and, if there is one, the queen consort wears her consort crown. In the evening, a fireworks display is held nearby, usually in Hyde Park. In 1902, Edward VII's illness led to the postponement of a fourteen-course banquet at Buckingham Palace. In 1953, two state banquets were held in the ballroom there, and classical music was provided by the Royal Horse Guards. Historically, the coronation was immediately followed by a"
"short of the full distance, in Wembley. Since the start of planning it had been hoped that for the Olympic Marathon itself the start would be on the East Lawn near the private East Terrace of Windsor Castle, with the permission of King Edward VII, so that the public would not interfere with the start. This permission was granted. With the start now securely within the private grounds of Windsor Castle, the Princess of Wales and her children drove from their home at Frogmore on the far side of Windsor Great Park to watch the start of the race. Shortly"
"start the race in front of Windsor Castle and finish in front of the royal reviewing stand at the White City Stadium. As a result, the distance was 42 km and 195 m. It took until 1921 for the IAAF to codify that distance as the official length of the marathon. Prior to this, races were usually about 25 miles (40 km). At the race itself, Dorando Pietri from Italy was the first to enter the stadium. But Pietri took a wrong turn, collapsed, was helped up on his feet by doctors, wobbled and fell three more times before being"
"Windsor Castle and then changed again at the request of Princess Mary so the start would be beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery. To ensure that the race would finish in front of the King, the finish line was moved by British officials who, in response to shot putter and American flag carrier Ralph Rose's refusal to dip the American flag before the Royal Box during the opening ceremony, “felt compelled to restore the importance of the monarchy.” As a result of these changes, the marathon covered a distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km), which became the"
"the finish of the Marathon. Such was the drama of that race, in which Dorando Pietri collapsed within sight of the finishing line when leading, that Conan Doyle led a public subscription campaign to see the gallant Italian, having been denied the gold medal through his disqualification, awarded a special silver cup, which was presented by Queen Alexandra. And the public imagination was so well caught by the event that annual races in Boston, Massachusetts, and London, and at future Olympics, were henceforward staged over exactly the same, 26-mile, 385-yard distance used for the 1908 Olympic Marathon, and the official"
"distance was chosen to ensure that the race finished in front of the box occupied by the British royal family. Thus the marathon had been for the first games in 1896, but was subsequently varied by up to due to local conditions such as street and stadium layout. At the six Olympic games between 1900 and 1920, the marathon was raced over six distances. At the end of the 1908 marathon the Italian runner Dorando Pietri was first to enter the stadium, but he was clearly in distress, and collapsed of exhaustion before he could complete the event. He was"
"from the start at Windsor Castle to the royal entrance to the White City Stadium, followed by a lap (586 yards 2 feet; 536 m) of the track, finishing in front of the Royal Box. The course was later altered to use a different entrance to the stadium, followed by a partial lap of 385 yards to the same finish. The modern standard distance for the marathon was set by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) in May 1921 directly from the length used at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. An official IAAF marathon course is 42.195 km (42"
"special podium in front of the Round Tower in the grounds of Windsor Castle to push the start button at 10:00 am"" This was 110 years after the 1908 Olympic Marathon was started at the same venue by the then Princess Mary, grandmother to The Queen and it is the third time a member of the royal family has started the race, held annually since 1981. With hot weather forecast, the organisers told racers to lower their performance goals and reconsider fancy dress which could lead to overheating. Extra water and cooling showers were added along the route. On race"
"standard length for a marathon, and the 1908 marathon course was originally to have been 25 miles, passing through Uxbridge, Ruislip, Harrow-on-the-Hill before ending at the White City Stadium. It was extended to 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 km) to avoid troublesome cobbles and tram lines, because of access restrictions at Windsor Castle and to improve visibility to the spectators, including Queen Alexandra, for the finishing stretch inside the stadium. This distance subsequently became the official length of the marathon. In 1948, London hosted the first Olympic Games to be held after World War II the ""austerity games"". The"
"more world records and had been run over more often than any other marathon. The Polytechnic Marathon had its origins in the marathon of the 1908 Summer Olympics, held in London. This race was organised by the Polytechnic Harriers, the athletics club of the London Polytechnic at Regent Street (now the University of Westminster). In those days, there was no set distance for the marathon; it was simply a long race, around in length. The Polytechnic Harriers decided to start the Olympic marathon in front of the Royal apartments at Windsor Castle and end it on the track at White"
"at the Olympic Stadium, the Great White City Stadium in Shepherd's Bush in London. The Polytechnic Harriers were also tasked with organising a Marathon Trial Race, to be run along most of the Olympic Marathon route. By April 1908, a revised map of the course of the Trial Race was published, also showing the intended course of the Olympic Marathon. It had by this time been decided to fix the Olympic Marathon distance at ""about 26 miles"" to the stadium, plus a lap of the track (), using the Royal Entrance as the marathon tunnel, and finishing at the normal"
"when Flack was in first place. However, when news was delivered to the fans that Louis overtook the lead, the cry ""Hellene, Hellene!"" was taken up by rapturous spectators. Louis was greeted with cheers after entering the Panathenaic Stadium for the final part of the marathon. Louis ran with Crown Prince Constantine and Prince George of Greece during the last lap, finishing with a time of 2:58:50. Louis's victory set off wild celebrations, as described in the official report of the Games: Here the Olympionic Victor was received with full honour; the King rose from his seat and congratulated him"
"and gymnastics took place at White City, while some others took place at Queens Club. Swimming was held at White City, in a 100-yard pool dug in the infield. The position of the finish line for the marathon in the 1908 Summer Olympics is commemorated by a marker in the plaza that now stands there. The distance of the modern marathon was fixed at these Games and calculated from the start of the race at Windsor Castle to a point in front of the royal box. The medal table for the 1908 Summer Olympics is also listed on a nearby"
"length of the event worldwide to this day. The London race, called the Polytechnic Marathon and originally staged over the 1908 Olympic route from outside the royal residence at Windsor Castle to White City, was first sponsored by the ""Sporting Life"", which in those Edwardian times was a daily newspaper which sought to cover all sporting events, rather than just a betting paper for horse racing and greyhounds that it became in the years after the Second World War. The rise of the radio made sports journalism more focused on the live coverage of the sporting events. The first sports"
"Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon The men's marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place on the Olympic marathon street course on 12 August, the final day of the Games. The course started and finished on The Mall in central London. Runners completed one short circuit of around part of the City of Westminster and then three longer circuits of around Westminster, the Victoria Embankment and the City of London. The course was designed to pass many of London's best-known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, the Bank of England, Leadenhall"
"before the Games opened it was realised that the Royal Entrance could not be used as the marathon entrance—it was raised to permit easy descent by the royal party from their carriages, and did not open onto the track—so an alternative entrance was chosen, diagonally opposite the Royal Box. A special path was made from Du Cane Road running due south just east of the Franco British Exhibition ground so that the distance from Windsor to the stadium remained ""about 26 miles"". The finishing line was left unchanged, but in order that more of the spectators would have a good"
"2016 London Marathon The 2016 London Marathon was held on 24 April 2016. It was the 36th running of the annual mass-participation marathon race and the third World Marathon Major of the year. The men's elite race was won by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and the women's race was won by Kenyan Jemima Sumgong. The men's wheelchair race was won by Marcel Hug from Switzerland and the women's wheelchair race was won by American Tatyana McFadden. The London Marathon is run over a largely flat course around the River Thames, and spans 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards). The route"
"stadium finishing-line in front of the Royal Box. The April 1908 map shows the intended finish, though the White City stadium was not yet complete at that time. The full Olympic route was thus from Windsor, via Eton, Slough, Langley, Uxbridge, Ickenham, Ruislip, Harrow, Sudbury, Wembley, Willesden, and Wormwood Scrubs, to White City Stadium. For the official Trial Marathon on 25 April 1908, the start was from Queen Victoria's statue in Windsor on ‘The Long Walk’ – a magnificent avenue leading up to Windsor Castle in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. The Trial Marathon would finish about four miles"
"during the marathon about . The race began and ended in the stadium, but the rest of the course was on dusty country roads with race officials riding in vehicles ahead of and behind the runners, creating dust clouds. The only source of water for the competitors was a well at about the 11-mile mark. James E. Sullivan was a chief organizer of the Olympics, and decided to allow only one water station on the 24.85 mile course of the marathon even though it was conducted in heat over unpaved roads choked with dust. His ostensible reason was to conduct"
"role on the European stage. In 1893, the Corinth Canal was built by a French company cutting the sea journey from the Adriatic Sea to Piraeus by . In 1896, the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, and the Opening Ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics was presided over by the King. When Spiridon Louis, a shepherd from just outside Athens, ran into the Panathinaiko Stadium to win the Marathon event, the Crown Prince ran down onto the field to run the last thousand yards beside the Greek gold medalist, while the King stood and applauded. The popular desire to"
"Olympe. Besides, Mimoun was wearing on his blue, French flag-bearing, running singlet what he considered to be the lucky number – number 13. The 1.70 m tall, 56 kg heavy Frenchman had never raced over the distance before but he excelled on his first attempt. The marathon started at 15:13 inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It had forty-six competitors representing twenty-three nations. The marathon had a false start, which was the first in Olympic history. The mustachioed Mimoun had a white bandana, embroidered with his wife's initials, tied around the top of his head since the start of the race"
"2012 Olympic Marathon Course The 2012 Olympic Marathon Course is that of both the men's and women's marathon races at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. The route consists of one short circuit of followed by three circuits of . The course, which was designed to pass many of London's well-known landmarks, starts and finishes on The Mall, within sight of Buckingham Palace, and extends as far as the Tower of London in the east and the Victoria Memorial in the west. The route of the marathon had been changed, for various logistical reasons, from that originally envisaged"
"Louis, who received a cup from Michel Bréal, a friend of Coubertin, who had conceived the marathon event. Louis then led the medalists on a lap of honour around the stadium, while the Olympic Hymn was played again. The King then formally announced that the first Olympiad was at an end, and left the Stadium, while the band played the Greek national hymn and the crowd cheered. Like the Greek king, many others supported the idea of holding the next Games in Athens; most of the American competitors signed a letter to the Crown Prince expressing this wish. Coubertin, however,"
"racers had completed the course by 6:10 pm, eclipsing the record of 36,705 set in 2012. Guinness World Records reported that more than 30 records were broken during the race for things such as ""fastest marathon dressed as Spiderman."" Two competitors wed midway through the race. Prince Harry presented the winners with their medals. Radcliffe received a lifetime achievement award. Britain's David Weir was attempting to win a record seventh London Marathon title in the men's wheelchair race. After Marcel Hug withdrew from the race midway with a punctured tyre, Weir and American Josh George battled for the lead. Weir"
"paving outside the building. The Marathon from these London Olympics played an important part in the development of the modern marathon race. In the early years of competitive international sport, the long distance marathon race did not have a standard set distance. The distance run at the first seven Olympics from 1896 to 1920 varied between 40km and 42.75 km. The starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard"
"which were held at White City alongside the Franco-British Exhibition, at the time the more noteworthy event. The White City Stadium, built in short time for the games, held 68,000. The stadium track was three laps to the mile (536 metres), not the current standard of 400 metres, with a pool for swimming and diving and platforms for wrestling and gymnastics in the middle. The distance from the start of the Marathon to the finish at the stadium was established at these games. The original distance of 25 miles was changed to 26 miles so the marathon could start at"
"and is often use for national meetings. Other athletics venues include Croydon Arena, Mile End Stadium, Olympic Stadium in east London plus Perivale Park and Linford Christie Stadium in the west. Every April since 1981, London has hosted one of the world's largest mass-participation marathons, the London Marathon. Indeed, the now standard length for a modern marathon was set in the 1908 London Olympics. The London Triathlon, the largest triathlon event in the world, also takes place annually. Between 1991 and 1998, the London Monarchs competed in American football's NFL Europe, winning the inaugural World Bowl. Today, the London Olympians,"
"distances relative to the lap start point of various prominent landmarks passed on the route are shown in the table below: When London submitted its bid for the Olympic Games in 2004, the bid chairman Sebastian Coe said: ""The marathon course has been designed to include as many of the city's landmarks as possible"". Although the final route is different from the one proposed in the bid, it still passes many notable landmarks. Originally the route was planned to start at Tower Bridge, run through Tower Hamlets and finish at the Olympic Stadium. It would have had a 580 m"
"in London's original 2005 bid for the Games and broke with the normal Olympic tradition that the race finishes inside the main Olympic Stadium. The 2012 Summer Olympics was the third to be held in London. The stated distance of the marathon at the London 1908 Summer Olympics – 26 miles and 385 yards, later converted to metric units as 42.195 kilometres – formed the basis of the standard distance adopted by International Association of Athletics Federations in 1921. The route, as confirmed in October 2010, starts on The Mall about 350 metres from the Victoria Memorial and has four"
"with spectators standing 10 to 15 people deep, turned out to cheer on the competitors in warm weather. The race began in Greenwich in South East London, passing by many of London's most famous landmarks, before finishing on The Mall. The men's elite race featured a particularly strong field, including marathon world-record holder Wilson Kipsang, reigning Olympic and world marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich, 2013 London Marathon champion Tsegaye Kebede, and London course-record holder Emmanuel Mutai. Other notable competitors included Geoffrey Mutai, who unofficially ran the fastest marathon ever; Ayele Abshero, who has the fastest marathon debut; Xiamen and Dublin marathon"
"Canada's Billy Sherring won the competition. John Svanberg, the runner-up in the 1906 5-mile race, was also runner-up in the marathon. American William Frank was the bronze medalist. Marathons at the Olympics The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the programme at the 1984 Olympics. The modern marathon event was created and later refined through the Olympic competition. The idea of holding a marathon race at the"
"competitors pass The Tower of London on Tower Hill. In the penultimate mile along The Embankment, the London Eye comes into view, before the athletes turn right into Birdcage Walk to complete the final , catching the sights of Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, and finishing in The Mall alongside St. James's Palace. The men's race was won by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge in a new course record, eight seconds shy of the world record. Kipchoge, after running alongside Stanley Biwott for most of the race, broke off to defend the title he won the previous year. The women's race was"
"for Swimming events. It already has one Olympic standard 50 metre swimming pool, which was extensively upgraded, and a second 50-metre pool was also to added for the Games as a warm-up facility. The existing permanent seating capacity was also increased by 1,000. Combined with additional temporary seating there was over 5,000 seats for the Games. Ibrox Stadium, in the South Side, was the venue for the Rugby Sevens tournament. Mountain biking was held on the Cathkin Braes in Rutherglen, the Royal Burgh neighbouring the City. The Marathon also began and ended at Hampden Park in the South Side, which"