THE BIG RUN

■ This Sunday sees the 44th running of the London Marathon so here are some facts and figures about the long race.

❑ The first London Marathon took place on March 29, 1981. The event was founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley.

❑ Brasher was one of the pacers in May 1954 when Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile.

❑ Disley helped to conceive the idea after he and Brasher, right, ran the New York Marathon in November 1979.

❑ Almost 20,000 people applied to enter the debut race: 7,055 started and 6,255 finished.

❑ The first Marathon had joint winners – American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen finished in 2 hours 11 minutes and 48 seconds and ran over the finish line holding hands.

❑ The first ladies’ race was won in 1981 by Joyce Smith, pictured below with Beardsley and Simonsen. She became the first Brit in history to run a marathon in under 2:30 when winning in 1981 she ran 2:29:57.

❑ Hugh Jones became the first Briton to win the men’s race when he triumphed on May 9, 1982 by almost three minutes over the second place.

❑ The first wheelchair marathon race was held in 1983.

❑ Mexican Dionicio Cerón has won the Marathon three consecutive times (1994-1996), the only man to do this.

❑ Eliud Kipchoge, António Pinto and Martin Lel have also won the race three times or more, although not in consecutive years.

❑ Six days before the 2013 London Marathon, the Boston Marathon was bombed. Thirty seconds of silence were held before the London race.

❑ Many runners wore a black armband and organisers promised to donate $3 to the Boston victim fund for every competitor who completed the race.

❑ A remarkable 578,374 people applied to take part in Sunday’s race.

❑ Celebrities running this year include TV presenters Romesh Ranganathan and Natalie Pinkham, actress Ruth Wilson, EastEnders actors Emma Barton and Jamie Borthwick, former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston and Phil Dunster, the star of Ted Lasso.

❑ In 2023, 49,272 runners competed and around 48,000 finished beating the previous record of 42,549 finishers.