This is the first time I traveled to an international marathon.

The pluses:
1. Well organized
2. Large, supportive crowds
3. Multiple starts to reduce crowding at start
4. Corrals based upon estimated finish time
5. Water and sports drink available regularly on course
6. Finish near Buckingham Palace
7. Excellent mass transit to get around before and after
8. Comfortable staging area near starts
9. Marathon Tours set me up with an excellent package deal

Minuses:
1. Field of 35,000 runners and narrow streets makes it tough to get open running room
2. Expo is located at a site a fair distance from downtown London
3. Course is definitely urban - stretch out to Canary Wharf was not very inspiring
4. Kit bag lorries were a long walk from finish line
5. One-size-fits-all, white finisher shirt - you have to be kidding
6. Entry for overseas runners has to be obtained through tour companies
7. Prices in London are very high

I ran 4:03. I had hoped to run faster (3:45), but cold rain during part of marathon and sightseeing probably took their toll on me. My family thoroughly enjoyed vacationing in London - a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I will probably not run here again, but would look for another marathon to "vacation" at.

Fantastic marathon. London has it all. For a large marathon, the organization is fantastic. From the start line to the finish line, everything was brilliantly organized.

After running 5 marathons abroad, I decided to run my home race for the second time. It was a good decision. Overall, the organization was superb and the crowd just amazing. And the course is relatively fast with no long, dull, quiet stretches. I posted a PB and really enjoyed the whole experience. I'm proud that London gets it right.

This was my first marathon... and I can't think of any better way of losing my marathon virginity!!

Great support from the spectators, police, and medical staff. Great marathon.

My hat's off to the London Marathon. This was an amazing experience that I hope to repeat sometime in the future. Everything was handled professionally and was very well-organized.

I only have 2 complaints - the first was the weather this year (I live in Texas and this was my hottest run of the year), but that's out of their control, so I really shouldn't complain. The other is the "one-size-fits-none" finisher's shirt. C'mon, for a race of this caliber, you HAVE to do better than this. I realize that having one-size finisher's shirt makes it easier post-race to get everyone through the finish area, but maybe add a participant's T-shirt of our correct size that we get with our packet? That would make my too-big finisher's shirt not so bad.

Other than that, this was a top-notch race. The expo was excellent, with a well-priced pasta feed. The course, although crowded with runners at some of the narrower streets, was great and is a PR course on a cooler day. In spite of the heat, I was still 3 minutes off a PR, so not too bad. And the fans! The most boisterous fans I've encountered in a marathon were all lined up in the last half.

I loved the city, I loved the race, and I hope to be back really soon! Everyone needs to do this race at least once!

A great course; the spectators were even better. It's amazing the morale boost I got from hearing all the well-wishers, especially since I had my name written on my shirt and they called me by my name. I don't know if they're aware how much they're appreciated.

My only complaints were that the registration should be automated and online, and easier for overseas entrants. Also I would have preferred more sports drink, as opposed to water, on the course.

This is not a marathon; it's an insane asylum without walls. The huge number of runners makes for a very crowded affair from start to finish. That's bad enough, but there was no discernible effort to segregate runners into groups on the basis of ability. In short, if you're looking to actually run a marathoon (as opposed to jog along in a crowd), you should look elsewhere. To take one example of the problem: I was supposedly with a group whose predicted finish was 3:15-3:30, but the woman next to me had a wrist pace band geared to a 5:00 marathon. There was no reason to think she was unusual, since there were plenty of people in the same starting group dressed up in costumes who obviously couldn't handle a pace faster than 6:00/KM or 10:00/mi.

But wait, there's more! The roads are often quite narrow, and you'll be jostled and bottled up in traffic for long stretches. The course itself is generally dull, although the last 5KM are quite impressive as you finish along the embankment, past the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. The crowds are certainly large and enthusiastic, but the organization is pretty awful. To get to the start you have to make your way to Greenwich, which puts you at the mercy of the Docklands Light Railway. This year (2007) one of the trains broke down at the charmingly-named Mudchute station, blocking the line and forcing many runners to walk several kilometers to the start. On the whole, this is one to avoid, unless you like a really huge field of joggers wearing silly costumes.

Before running in FLM 2004, I had hardly ran a mile. Then I trained for FLM and the atmosphere was so electric that I entered again in 2005 and again in 2006 - and people say after doing it once, never again. I aim to keep going till I can't run anymore and my aim is to do NY and Chicago as well; my main aim is to run sub-4 hours.

I've run all the top city marathons around the world but no other city has the unique atmosphere of the London Marathon. The best!

I ran in 2002. The start was amazing, but then it seemed like just another run - sorry!! Passing all the landmarks was great, the crowds were brilliant, and the music was inspiring and well worth all that training. This race is a definite MUST to do. I went through a charity so that I got a place. I did enjoy it until I came across zillions of discarded orange skins - not the best running surface.... Whoops.... Tired legs don't "do" orange skins. DO IT if it's the only one you do. I prefer Dublin, but then that's a much smaller event 11,000-12000 runners, as opposed to 35,000.