History of the Virgin London Marathon
It all started in a pub, recalled the late Chris Brasher, co-founder of the London Marathon and Trustee of The London Marathon Charitable Trust Ltd. The Dysart Arms, hard by Richmond Park, is the home of Ranelagh Harriers where, on Wednesday nights, runners drift in from their run and talk over pints of bitter. On this particular night the talk was of a marathon where the spectators never allow you to falter – much less drop out.
Brasher remembered that he had been ambivalent about the marathon, the most punishing event in the Olympic calendar.
“Peter Wilson of the Daily Mirror, one of the greatest sportswriters of (the 20th) century, had taught me that the one event that had to be covered from start to finish was the marathon – an event which, he said, was always packed with human drama.
“Obediently, I followed his guidance and will never forget the sight of two African runners, Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia and Rhadi ben Abdesselm of Morocco, their bare feet whispering on the ancient cobbles of the Via Appia, taking Rome by storm in the 1960 Olympic marathon.
“That was when I knew that if I was to understand this event which embodies courage and fortitude, I had to experience it myself.
“But the prospect of putting one foot in front of the other for 26 miles, 385 yards of boring road, filled me with foreboding. I could run the distance on the glorious hills of Britain, but to do it on the roads, watched by three cows and a dog, was surely the height of masochism. Until I heard these stories in the Dysart Arms – stories of an incredible event known as the New York City Marathon.”
So Brasher entered, ran, finished, flew home and then sat at his desk in the small hours of an October night, and wrote an article, ‘The World’s Most Human Race’ which was published in The Observer, October 1979.
It started with these words: “To believe this story you must believe the human race to be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen....”
Brasher ended the article by wondering “...whether London could stage such a festival? We have the course, a magnificent course... but do we have the heart and hospitality to welcome the world?”
Donald Trelford, then the editor of The Observer, and Brasher met with the relevant authorities – the Greater London Council (GLC), the police and athletics’ governing bodies – early in 1980 and the London Marathon was born.