2010 London Marathon - Complete Coverage

photo credit: Victah Sailah / PhotoRun

The 2010 London Marathon had great potential and London, as always put on a great race. But with the field of runners in attendance and the promise and possibility of amazing things, the results of the marathon were not as newsworthy as we might have hoped. If this were any other marathon than London, we would be crowing about how amazing the race and finishes had been - but this is London and we'll admit that our expectations for London are over the top.

With the inclusion of the best male marathoners in the world, there seemed to be a great possibility of a world record - or at least another course record. But humid weather, rain and, apparently, the pacers being off the game - left the 2010 London Marathon to be just like any other London Marathon. In fact, the 2010 London Marathon was so similar to the 2009 edition that the men who finished top three were the same men who had finished second, third and fourth in the previous year. And the winner, Tsegay Kebede, ran the race in virtually the same time (actually one second faster) than he had to gain his runner-up spot in 2009. Read the full writeups for more...

And for the women... 2008 and early 2009 were the years of Irina Mikitenko as the German champion debuted in the marathon in late 2007 with a podium finish at Berlin and followed that performance with three consecutive marathon victories at London, Berlin, and London again... Mikitenko took the World Marathon Majors series prize money and seemed unstoppable. 2009 and 2010 seem to be the years of Liliya Shobukhuva as the Russian ex-steeplechaser, was on the podium of her debut marathon at the 2009 London Marathon and then followed that up with a win at the 2009 Chicago Marathon (beating Mikitenko) and now the win at the 2010 London Marathon. Podium, win, win - Shobukhuva has cemented her place as a top marathoner with this win at the London Marathon.

Our Pre-Race Writeup... (archived for interest
The London Marathon will be running celebrating its 30th running - and during those 30 years the race has become the richest in the world, and with the new sponsorship of Virgin and Richard Branson - the race enters the new decade on firm ground.

Some of the world's marathons don't care about the elite athletes, some hope for a competitive race but don't care about time, and some care about putting together a competitive field vying for the fastest times possible. London fits firmly in the last category - the fields at London are the best and deepest in the world and the prize structure that the race has setup encourages and rewards the runners for posting fast times.

In the men's field, the 2010 race brings together a couple of men who could challenge the marathon world record: Sammy Wanjiru and Zersenay Tadesse. Wanjiru is the reigning Olympic Champion, the defending champion and course record holder at London and also added the Chicago Marathon course record and win to his resume in 2009. Tadesse has yet to complete a marathon, but he is the world record holder in the Half Marathon, which will suggest that he can and will run an incredibly fast marathon - when he is ready. One of the stories and questions about the 2010 race will be to see whether one of these men can break the course and/or world record. Also in the men's field are a dozen men who can run incredibly fast times - read the rest of coverage to see who those gentlemen are.

In the women's field, Irina Mikitenko has been incredibly successful in her short marathon career and reigns as the two-time defending champion of the London Marathon. However, the 2009 third place finisher, Liliya Shobukhova, beat Mikitenko at the 2009 Chicago Marathon and so London will stand as a rematch and test for these two - not to mention the slew of other fast women.

London is Fast.

The story in the week preceding the marathon was the volcano in Iceland preventing athletes from making it to London - but as of the Wednesday before the race, it seemed that the airspace was open to flights and that story has played out. Now onto the race.