London is a much different race. This course is flat, and four world records - including the women’s world record of 2:15:25 held by Paula Radcliffe - have been set here. The men’s course record, held by Samuel Wanjiru, is 2:05:10.

The London Marathon is a road marathon that has been held each year in London since 1981, usually in April. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money, as the Virgin London Marathon. Previously the event was sponsored by Flora (from 1996 to 2009) . The 2010 London Marathon is currently taking place today, Sunday 25 April.

Men’s Elite: Samuel Wanjiru, last year’s winner, is defending his title against four other men who hold personal best times under 2:06: Duncan Kibet, Abel Kirui, Tsegaye Kebede and Jaouad Gharib. These are just the fastest men in an impressive field that is sure to attempt world record time. There are certainly some that could attack the world record marathon time of 2:03:59 set by Haile Gebrselassie in 2008

Women’s Elite: Irina Mikitenko is back this year, hoping for a third straight victory. She has strong competition from a field that includes 14 women who have run faster than 2:25, including Olympic Champion Constantina Dita of Romania and Deena Kastor of the US, the 2006 London Marathon winner.

Travel Trouble: Volcanic ash is still a problem for travel this week – several elite athletes are still at home looking for new flights. Mara Yamauchi became the first elite to arrive in London after a six day trip. Several Kenyan runners are set to share a chartered plane to make it to Europe after flight disruptions. Deena Kastor blogged on her website about her two days of canceled planes while on hold with the airlines.

Odds & Ends: This is the only marathon in the world to be held on two hemispheres...a high percentage of these runners are going for charity – 78% in 2007...The ExCel Centre, site of the expo, composts food waste via 250,000+ worms...the last major course change was an altering of the route near the Tower of London in 2005 to avoid cobblestones.

In addition to being one of the top five international marathons run over the traditional distance of 42.195 km (26 miles and 385 yards), the London Marathon is also a large, celebratory sporting festival, second only to the Great North Run in Newcastle, in terms of the number of participants. It is one of the World Marathon Majors, a two-year series of elite marathon racing that also includes the Boston, Chicago, New York and Berlin marathons.

An unusual feature is the very large amounts of money raised for charity, much more than other marathons. According to the race organisers, it is now the largest annual fund raising event in the world with the 2006 participants raising over £41.5 million for charity, bringing the total amount raised for charity by runners, to a grand total of £315 million. In 2007, 78% of all runners raised money. In 2010 the official charity of the London Marathon is CLIC Sargent.

The company behind the London Marathon has been the subject of an investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme for not publishing a full breakdown of its accounts and in relation the amount of money charged to some charities in order to take part.

Tags: london marathon