2012 Olympic Marathon Course

The 2012 Olympic Marathon Course is that of both the men's and women's marathon races at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

The 42.195-kilometre (26.219-mile) route consists of one short circuit of 3.571 kilometres (2.219 miles) followed by three circuits of 12.875 kilometres (8.0 miles). The course, which was designed to pass many of London's well-known landmarks, starts and finishes on The Mall, within sight of Buckingham Palace, and extends as far as the Tower of London in the east and the Victoria Memorial in the west.

The route of the marathon had been changed, for various logistical reasons, from that originally envisaged in London's original 2005 bid for the Games and now breaks with the normal Olympic tradition that the race finishes inside the main Olympic Stadium.

The 2012 Summer Olympics is the third to be held in London. The stated distance of the marathon at the London 1908 Summer Olympics – 26 miles and 385 yards, later converted to metric units as 42.195 kilometres  – formed the basis of the standard distance adopted by International Association of Athletics Federations in 1921.

The route, as confirmed in October 2010, starts on The Mall about 350 metres from the Victoria Memorial and has four laps, finishing at the start point. It follows the Victoria Embankment towards the City of London where it takes a winding route and continues eastwards to Tower Hill. At this point there is a U-turn and the route heads westwards, again using the Embankment as far as the Palace of Westminster and thence back to The Mall. The last three laps are identical and are exactly 8 miles (12.875 km) each. The first lap, which only incorporates the south-western section of the route, is 2 miles and 385 yards (3.571 km) long.

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