The London Marathon- a marvellous sporting spectacle.

The London Marathon- a marvellous sporting spectacle.

They came from far and wide. They lined the streets for the best part of several hours and London once again excelled itself. Here we are in the last stages of April, the spring sunshine is playing peek a boo with us and the London Marathon captivated us in a way that it's always done. It is now 36 years old and is still a much loved, well established sporting favourite. It is written indelibly on the sporting calendar and London keeps delivering the goods. What a race and what a spectacle! It should be bottled for posterity and always remembered.

As soon as the cuckoo lets out its first chirruping note, London gets all busy and prepared for what is now regarded as one of the most iconic and revered of sporting occasions. Every year since 1981 the club runners, the Olympians, the record breakers, the professionals and the wonderfully eccentric dig out their designer trainers, check the spikes on their shoes and then gird themselves for a 26 mile marathon that continues to enthrall not only Britain but the entire world.

With every passing year the race gets bigger and better, expanding in numbers while the whole of London sits patiently in front of its TV keenly anticipating its very own homage to the capital city. There can be nothing like it and how Britain bathes in the spotlight. This year over 40,000 runners  will take part  in one of the best long distance and endurance race with differing objectives and personal challenges.

There they stand at the start at the Marathon with watches on their wrists. numbers carefully and lovingly sewn onto their vests and the most charitable of hearts. They'll be running for Multiple Sclerosis, the British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer, Leukaemia Research and a whole variety of benevolent causes. Because this is the London Marathon, the one sporting event that transcends everything in our lives, makes us feel proud to be associated with sport, to cheer from the terraces, to encourage our heroes to victory, to wave the national flags and then celebrate the sheer joy of just being there.

 The London Marathon is without doubt one of the best organised and most compelling of yearly sporting events. Ever since the late and much missed Chris Brasher fired the gun to start the first London Marathon all those years ago, thousands of club runners, thousands of fun runners and all those with hearts of devotion to the cause have pulled on their shirts, eaten their pasta the night before the London Marathon and just thrown themselves whole heartedly into 26 miles of heart thumping, foot pounding and striving to be the best. It is achingly arduous but endlessly fascinating, pitilessly punishing but, to all intents and purposes, enormously rewarding particularly when you cross the finishing line.

The London Marathon is all about the people, humanity at its bravest and courageous, humanity at its most emotional and sentimental, humanity at its most caring, sharing and considerate. So what is it that drives 40,000 runners, what is their motivation, what makes them jump out of bed on Marathon day and sparks off that infectious enthusiasm, that willingness to break every record and conquer the summit that is 26 miles.

When the London Marathon first started the sceptics, critics, the cynics and the naysayers convinced us that those taking part were crazy, foolish, zany and totally bonkers. And yet how wrong they were 36 years later because the London Marathon is still alive and well and functioning, still warming our hearts and still holding Britain in thrall.

And so it is that in every town, village and city throughout the country, Britain casts its eyes on London and rubs its eyes in sheer amazement. They are the ones who also train religiously on dark and wet evenings, pushing their bodies to the utmost, puffing and panting but clocking up the miles with commendable  single mindedness and total commitment to the cause. Finishing the race represents the ultimate achievement and maybe that's all that matters.

These are the people though who just don't care how long it takes them to run the London Marathon because for them 26  miles of running along the streets of London means much more than a conventional jog around the streets of London. It's about competing, joining in with the spirit of sport, of running on behalf of their charity and just having the time of their lives regardless of time.

As somebody who's now caught the running bug again I have to tell you that my admiration for these seasoned, long distance runners is boundless. I did once complete a local half marathon a year or two after the completion of  the first London Marathon and it has to be said it was the hardest and toughest challenge I've ever been set. I can still see myself ploughing along the country lanes of Hainault and Chigwell and asking myself over and over again why and what possessed me to get involved in the first place. Surrounded by thunder, rain and lightning, I did complete the 13 mile course with immense difficulty but finish it I did and well done to me.

Still I now look at the London Marathon with a very detached and objective eye. I can remember running regularly through the parks and streets and questioning myself constantly. But now the London Marathon has got me hooked, possibly transfixed me but sometimes leaves me completely perplexed. And yet what an event, the perennial battle of mind over matter, 26 miles of stamina sapping agony. But every year the masses turn up at a London park, steadily trotting towards the starting line before assessing and calculating. This day is undoubtedly their day because this year is always their year.

So it is that the London Marathon for both men and women wends its way through London's back streets, Lambeth and Blackheath, Docklands in all its high tech splendour, more of London's old and new roads winding, turning, twisting their way to Buckingham Palace before the final lung bursting push to the Mall. It is one of London's most intriguing, unique and phenomenal of events bringing a lump to the throat and leaving you permanently energised, revitalised and wonderfully enthused. The London Marathon can do that to you because it means so much to so many people which can be no bad thing at all.

For the record- and there were all manner of those which were broken today- the winner of the 2017 London Marathon was Daniel Wanjuru of Kenya in 2 hours 5 minutes and 48 seconds. Aren't stopwatches great? 48 seconds hey? I take it that means Greenwich Mean Time. Wanjuru was closely folllowed by the great Ethiopian long distance runner Keninsa Bekele who remains one of the most legendary figures in Marathon history. Bekele, they tell us, is the most incredible runner world athletics has ever produced  and will take some beating, But this year he finished as runnners up which is very creditable all the same.

Then our very own David Weir, Britain's finest Paralympian at the moment, burst triumphantly over the finishing tape as winner of the wheelchair race, Mary Keitany broke Britain's pride and joy Paula Radcliffe's world record and then won the women's race. It was too good to be true. It was all such dizzy, heady fun, a joyful demonstration of Marathon running at its most carefree  and charming.

And then there were the fun runners jogging jauntily, pacing themselves and then smiling for the BBC cameras. For these are the Marathon's humble and unassuming ones, the ones who stretch every sinew and then dress up in the most ridiculous costumes. They are never the ones who want to be famous or acclaimed, grab the limelight or indeed look for publicity and adulation. They are the toilet rolls, the John Smith pint of beer, the people who dress up as trees, the running trainers in orange and green, the Buzz Lightyear lookalikes, or the lovably silly who just want to be stopped half way around the course for a chat about the weather.

This is the London Marathon. This is London at her most democratic, inclusive, humorous, competitive and non competitive. In the tragic light of recent events in London this was London at her most therapeutic, united, harmonious and glad to be an integral part of London. In a sense the London Marathon is all embracing and overwhelmingly feelgood. Maybe that's all we need in our often hectic and frenetic lives, a place to unwind and do something entirely out of the ordinary.

Now that London Marathon is over we can now turn our attention to another Marathon in some remote and exotic corner of the globe. Once again we'll be subjected to a street festival, a combination of the sublime and stupendous, an occasion that renders the impossible possible. After 26 miles of pain and suffering London found its perfect medicine. Perhaps London should do this more often- over and over again. Now where's that Bruce Springsteen record?  Born to run? Personally I'll have to pass on that one.