{"id":11,"date":"2020-11-12T23:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T23:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richruns.co.uk\/?p=11"},"modified":"2020-11-17T12:40:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T12:40:27","slug":"virgin-money-london-marathon-2020-a-virtual-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richruns.co.uk\/virgin-money-london-marathon-2020-a-virtual-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Money London Marathon 2020 – A Virtual Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Hands up who hasn\u2019t had a race cancelled in 2020? This whole coronavirus thing has got a lot to answer for really, with races cancelling left, right, and centre since April. Many events are now turning virtual for 2020, where you run a route alone, or with a small group of friends (socially distanced, of course!), and log your own time and submit these to the organisers, who will usually post out a medal or souvenir of your run<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Virgin Money London Marathon is no exception to this. Having postponed earlier in 2020, and then held on for as long as possible to see if it was possible to run the race in October 2020 instead of April, they finally made the decision to go virtual, for all athletes except the elites. The elites are running a different route to usual, running laps of St. James\u2019 Park in London. Apparently, the 26.2 mile course consists of 19.8 laps of a route in the park – that\u2019s going to be one massive mental battle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event has been opened up to tens of thousands more people than usual, so people who have never had the chance (via the usual ballot process, through good-for-age entry, or a charity place) to run the London Marathon before can now do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, kind of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whilst everyone who signed up will get a London Marathon medal and t-shirt (and they look pretty nice too) it won\u2019t be quite the same as running the iconic London route – nothing beats the cheering of the crowds over Tower Bridge, around the Cutty Sark, or along the Embankment as you tick off the final 5k of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n