Best/iconic places to watch the London Marathon.

Eldest son is running the marathon on Sunday. I’ve never watched it live, and don’t really know what to expect, so if anyone has any top tips on best places to go that would be great. I’m not familiar with London at all so will need to put a detailed itinerary together if that’s possible.
None of us are runners and he only started for this, but he’s 22 and put the work in.

His charity is the Oxford Hospitals that cared for him when he had cancer at 15. He also had a knee cruitiate ligament rebuild at 16.
He’s smashed his original target and is up to £5k but if anyone wants to chuck a quid in its:
https://2024tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/max-komodikis?fbclid=IwAR0DsXGBHrt5TpNB7nEWL_FKYtpq8ObS98NESV0AfGbl7QVc0oQ8E5Ed7BM_aem_AbykWBmgwEnKIu1UKtJLjOqQ1hvZiumhf2V2Fquc6-jrwnhwnmnM54zuqc4rrnxmZ4g

At the finish. That way you get a couple of hours to fill in a coffeehouse.

Or on TV ?

Get to see all the iconic parts then

I would avoid all the iconic parts as your not likely to get to the front to see

When does he think he will suffer the most ? Thats where a bit of moral support would be good

I feel like there was a post about this recently, or I’ve gone mad.

But, grab a copy of the route for this year and download the city mapper app and you should be able to see him 2 or 3 times.

I went up few years ago to support a friend, saw them around surrey quays, canary wharf but missed seeing them again closer to the finish as got stuck in canary wharf for longer then wanted as it was so busy!

Looking at this years route, I’d maybe see if you could get to Greenwich area first, then catch him before the canary wharf loop around shadwell, ratcliff area and then get yourself somewhere between blackfriars and the finish.

The Marathon app will help you track them going through the set markers so you’ll know using city mapper if you’ll miss them or not to a destination.

I really enjoyed my day in london watching the race, cheering anyone I could read the name of or the running club, some nice food stalls along the route too.

Great advice thanks!
Oikeith how is the underground on the day- is it mental?
Good coffee house advice also welcome. Probably on every corner I guess.

I feel like there was a post about this recently, or I’ve gone mad.

There was. Same OP… so we don’t even need blame the search function.

I’ve never gone to watch it, but I know London well and keith’s advice looks sound.

Can you get your lad to run with a location app, so you can tell where he is? I read in a thread on here yesterday that WhatsApp does this now.

Unless he’s very fast, you should get to see him a few times – maybe Greenwich, Isle of Dogs and somewhere beside the Thames between the City and West End.

So much of London is iconic (apart from Isle of Dogs obvs), so I’d just focus on nice spots that won’t be totally rammed.

See if you can find an overlay of the route on the Tube map.

Limehouse basin is a good spot, the runners come up one side and they come back around the other a while later having been round Docklands. I think that is quite far in, so have cheered friends on there as they’re potentially flagging at that point and need a cheer on. Plenty of pubs and cafes wait it out in too.

It is busy though, so be prepared for lots of queuing.

After your original thread, I bought a 2nd hand AirTag and will be carrying that, figured it might be a good way of people knowing where I am and should work even if GPS and cellular data is bit ropey.

I used to go to support a friend. We would watch the start, then go somewhere nice for breakfast, then see him at tower bridge and then at the finish

mark88 my other thread was about getting in and out I think. Memory is pretty bad, and didn’t recheck it. Apologies if I’m wrong.
Edit Just found it and seem some useful info regarding viewing spots that I’d missed. Apologies, anxiety overtaking common sense.

Lunge that’s a good idea but no idea how AirTags work- surely wifi or Bluetooth?
FFS the answer to this on the other thread. Balls.

If he has his phone on him share location on WhatsApp.

I agree on the tower bridge then the embankment or mall for the best viewing options. The embankment may be less crowded than the mall.

if I recall the Marathon app lets you track via bib number or name of runner and will tell you when they crossed set distances, think its every 8km or so. Real easy to track someone via it, I’m not sure the hassle of something enabled on the runners phone is needed and may just serve to drain the battery!

Use hire bikes or the Tube to get around. Buses will all be screwed cos they’ll either just be cancelled or on significant diversion.

Don’t use your own bike, it’s a pain to lock up anywhere approaching safe/convenient.

Have a look at the route map, there are loads of places where the route doubles back on itself. Isle of Dogs is good for that. Pass by one side, you get a 200m walk to the other side but the runners have 5 miles around it so loads of time to spare.

Try to avoid handing anything up. It’s a nightmare to spot individual runners and for them to see you unless you’re running some kind of tracker and a formal plan of “we will be at X, Y and Z”. And half the time the runners don’t know where they are anyway!

Thanks, great advice. Definitely looking at the loops! I’m guessing we won’t get near to see him finish at the Mall, but is it worth a try?

Seems our airbnb in Woolwich is really close to the route, then might get a ferry to Isle of Dogs.

My wife’s run it a couple of times. She also recommends having a chat to your son and finding out when he tends to have low points in his training runs. That’s when a friendly face by the side of the road can be a real boost. She said between about mile 15 and about mile 22 was when she appreciated the encouragement the most.
I was lucky in that we lived in London and I could just head in on a Brompton and find places to support.
Pounding the south loop around Milwall was apparently a bit miserable, and that’s when my stupid face cheered her up, and the slog back from Wapping to the City was pretty tough too.
If you’re cheering near the start (or at least in the section south of the river), use the Greenwich Foot Tunnel by the Cutty Sark to walk (don’t ride a bike through it) over to the Isle of Dogs.
I wish him luck! And if it’s his first marathon – don’t go off too hard! It should feel almost too easy for the first quarter to a half, it will get harder later…!

Thanks Pierre, good advice.
He decided on his pace, and put the time down on the map where he would pass each mile marker. The map was distributed around the group. It was his first marathon, and as a previous non runner cancer survivor etc he had a lot of friends and family supporting.
Between everyone we probably notched up 15- 20 successful spots- he stuck to his pace and passed each predicted place bang on within 5 minutes of the map time.
Moving around London was fine on the tube but mile 23 to 26 was almost impossible with the tube and stations closed for safety as everyone descended on the finish and meet up.
Similarity once he had finished getting out seemed impossible. We were stood outside Prezzo wondering what to do, they squeezed us in for a meal and we stayed for a couple of hours while it all died down and we jumped on a bus out to where the car was parked.
It was an incredible day, very emotional, and London and everyone in it was awesome.
The weather was so perfect being dry and chilly, with some sun.
He ran 4.21 which was exactly to plan and could manage the hobble around after.
What a buzz, people congratulating each other, and their friends all looking elated.
London was beautiful, and a real reminder why we should visit often.

lovely write up :), it’s easy to forget that these things are 10’s of thousands of individual successes and culmination of months and months of training

Seen it many times on tv over the years but watched it live yesterday supporting our daughter. Managed to see her 3 times and her friends also saw her and it was great to all meet up in the pub afterwards. Incredibly humbling to see all of the charities being supported and the often sad stories that would be behind each runners chosen charity. The most emotional thing I saw yesterday was a woman running topless who had had a double mastectomy. Talk about a jaw dropping moment.

Glad to hear it worked out OP and Shinton.

As previously mentioned, I did it a few years ago and found it a great day in London and would recommend to anyone to go a watch the marathon.