2026 London Marathon- finish line data

If you were to ask people what they remember about the 2026 London Marathon, chances are the words ‘sub-2 hour marathon’ would be the recurring theme. That particular statistic seems to be the one that sticks. But, surprising as it may be, it’s not the only interesting piece of data to come out of this year’s race. Nor are the elites the only ones to have taken part. There’s a whole other world, and a whole other set of data, still left to explore.

2026 London Marathon Participation by Gender

Of all 7 Abbott World Marathon Majors, London is generally considered one of the most equal in terms of gender. In fact, its 2025 edition was praised for just that- setting the standard for gender equality. With almost 25,000 women taking part, the 2025 London Marathon’s 56% male, 44% female ratio was its most even split in history. The problem in reaching your peak though, is that afterwards the only thing left to do is fall back down.

At the 2026 London Marathon almost 60% of participants were male, a 4% increase on the previous year, and not only that- it’s the highest percentage since 2021. The London Marathon hasn’t been this unequal in 5 years. Now that’s not to be dramatic. A 59.7/43.9 split isn’t especially unequal on the general scale of things, especially considering that fellow marathon major Tokyo is yet to reach 30% women, but it is by London Marathon standards.

2026 London Marathon Average Finish Times

The elite athletes weren’t the only ones running faster than usual at the 2026 London Marathon. As it turns out, just about everyone was. There’s no doubting that Sabastian Sawe, the first man to ever run a marathon in under 2 hours, was in the shape of his life, but clearly something was in the air that day. After all, marathon course conditions play a big role in deciding if today will be your day or not, and no, they don’t care how fit you might be.

The average finish time at the 2026 London Marathon was 4 minutes faster than in 2025, where it lay at around 4:40 across both genders. Interestingly though, while the overall average tended towards 2026 being a faster year, when you separate finish times according to gender, it paints a rather different picture. The average finish time for men in 2025 was 4:23, whereas for women it was around the 5 hour mark. In short, come 2026 the men got slower and the women got faster. By big margins too.

How do the 2026 London Marathon finish times compare to 2025?

This finding does actually reflect the elite London Marathon race itself though. Because while the top three men all finished under the previous world record and Tigist Assefa on the women’s side improved her record from 2025, that success didn’t exactly trickle down the podium. Behind the top finishers, very few elite runners actually improved on their personal bests. There were 13 personal bests out of 30 elite men, and 2 out of 12 elite women. 5 of those were podium finishers, and 2 were marathon debuts. On the surface, with world records in both the male and female races, the 2026 London Marathon could be described as its fastest ever edition. But with extreme speed at one end comes an extreme distortion of averages, and the masked reality we’ve just uncovered.

2026 London Marathon International Participation

Times weren’t the records beaten at the 2026 London Marathon. The event itself was record-breaking, with its 59,830 finishers the highest number ever recorded in a marathon. And when we look at the data, most of that is due to the UK public themselves. Only 32% of runners were from overseas, which out of all the figures we’ve looked at so far, is the only one to remain stable since 2025.

A 32% rate of international participation might seem surprisingly low to you, but when we compare it to the other Abbott World Marathon Majors, it’s not exactly out of the ordinary. Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin, they all have similar make-ups, with a vast majority of runners coming from the host country itself. The only two that don’t follow the same pattern are Tokyo and Sydney. The 2026 Tokyo Marathon had an international rate of 46%, and for Sydney’s most recent edition that number was higher still, at 53%. What do these two Marathon Majors have in common? They’re the youngest in the group.

Why does the London Marathon have so few international participants?

That in itself should tell you everything you need to know. The London Marathon is already well-established. With a consistently world-class elite field, it no longer needs to prove itself an international success when it comes to the average runner. Once you reach that position, you have the ability to focus any further growth inwards, which is what London has done by incentivising runners to raise money for local charities and reserving certain qualifying spots for UK residents.

Sydney and Tokyo on the other hand are still in the growing stages, and with that comes a need to spread the word amongst average runners, and hope that the global elites soon follow.

2026 London Marathon Times by Age Group

This is where you really see the difference between sprinting and long distance running. The idea of a 40 year old elite athlete running a faster 100m than their 24 year old counterpart seems highly unlikely, but when it comes to marathon running, the 40-44 year old age group consistently comes out on top. For both men and women the fastest 2026 London Marathon finish times were recorded by 40 year olds, the same as in 2025. In fact, the 40-44 year old male average is a whole 8 minutes faster than the 4:29 overall male average.

If you’re wondering why it happens to be the case that 40-44 year olds are running marathons an average of 4 minutes faster than those aged between 18 and 39, the answer is that unlike sprinting, the marathon doesn’t rely so much on factors like natural speed which decline with age. Running marathons takes a mix of strength and cardiovascular endurance, which not only takes time to build, but can also still be improved past the age of 35. Elite athletes and average runners alike reach their peak marathon form later in life, whereas for sprinters, it’s rare that we see them on the track after 40.

Who were the oldest and youngest participants at the 2026 London Marathon?

Speaking of age, who was the oldest participant at the 2026 London Marathon? 88 year old Harry Newton takes that crown, finishing the race for the 22nd time, ever since he started running marathons aged 57. Clearly, it’s never too late to begin. Or too early either, as demonstrated by the London Marathon’s youngest participants, who were all racing on the day of their 18th birthday.

Conclusion

The 2026 London Marathon was record-breaking, in almost every way possible. And judging by the fact that over 1.3 million people applied to take part in the 2027 edition via public ballot, it looks like we might see a repeat next year.

Written by- Rosana Ercilla