The London Landmarks Half Marathon (LLHM) distance was cut by 700 meters shortly before the race began after an incident that required emergency services at Chancery Lane tube station.
The start had to be delayed by 15 minutes and a section of the race had to be closed to allow access for emergency services, meaning most runners did not complete the full distance as expected.
Owned by Tommy’s, a charity supporting those who suffer from pregnancy and baby loss, the event has been running since it began in 2018, incorporating Bin Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Gerkin and the Tower of London and many iconic sites more into the route.
An official statement released by LLHM read: “We had to delay the start of the event by 15 minutes while our teams worked quickly to reconfigure the course.
“[It was] a difficult but necessary decision to help keep everyone safe and support the vital work of the emergency services.
“We know how hard so many of you trained for this day, how much it means, and how frustrating it can be when things don’t go entirely to plan. Your patience, understanding and kindness in the face of an unexpected situation means so much to us.”
The Met Police has been contacted for comment regarding what the incident was.
Maddie George, 23, who was running her third half marathon, found out about the incident just before the race began, lining up in Wave 4 of runners waiting to cross the start line.
She said: “For me, it was my third half marathon, and I was running it for a [specific] time, and I did run considerably quicker than the time I had intended to do.
“Even plus an extra 700 metres it still would have been quicker, but it does slightly change how you see your time.”
This cut to the half marathon distance poses problems for future races, and those wishing to compete in further half and full marathons.
George said: “People could have been running to get a time, and that time may now not count, because that is a considerable change in distance, so it could have a big impact in terms of qualifying time [and] UK rankings.”
Many runners only received a notification informing them of the closure once they had started running, despite the incident occurring before the start of the race.
Fellow runner Ella Stadler, 25, said: “I spent a lot of the race thinking that my watch was recording the wrong distance.”
She crossed the finish line and continued to run for 700m until her watch clocked over to 21.1km.
When she eventually saw a notification on her phone, which had been sent 18 minutes before she reached the finish line, she became aware of the situation.
She said: “I don’t think other participants finishing at the same time as me did know the race was shortened. If they did, I think more people would have continued running.
“I did see one or two people running beyond the finish line, but most people must have thought I was doing a rather intense cool down!”
The 2025 event is expected to raise around £16M for over 700 charities, according to LLHM.
LLHM 2025 was the biggest edition of the event to date, with over 20,000 participants, building on the £50,000,000 total raised between 2018–2024 events.
You can pre-register for the 2026 event on the official LLHM website.
Feature Image Credit: Ella Stadler
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