London Marathon 2026 poll: Has the United Kingdom turn out to be a country of runners?

Running hasn’t all the time been fashionable.

It wasn’t till the mid-late 1970s when a jogging increase took off throughout the United Kingdom.

Inspired via developments within the United States, there used to be a surge in pastime in street working as a recreational task and method of conserving have compatibility and wholesome.

An estimated a million folks now imagine themselves to be runners, participating in new occasions from amusing runs to marathons.

This expansion is underlined via the London Marathon poll nowadays.

In the primary London Marathon in 1981 simply over 7,000 folks took phase.

Fast-forward 4 a long time and a couple of million folks have entered the 2026 London Marathon poll by myself.

The expansion in call for displays the national development for being lively. As a society, we’re usually shifting extra now than ever ahead of. According to ultimate month’s Sport England Active Lives survey, the choice of folks enjoying recreation and collaborating in bodily task between November 2023 and November 2024 in England used to be on the absolute best stage on file.

And whilst the choice of adults who run is beneath the pre-pandemic top of 7 million, in keeping with Sport England, it has grown 350,000 12 months on 12 months to 6 and a part million.

This means that, whilst the whole quantity isn’t as top as it’s been, lots of those that run do with extra fervour than ahead of, given the expansion within the participation at occasions.

Elite runner Phily Bowden, who used to be the 3rd British feminine house in ultimate Sunday’s London Marathon elite race, mentioned: “I like to say I was there before it was cool.

“It’s undoubtedly rising.

“When you first start running, if you’re not fit and you don’t do any cardio, it is hard and it’s not necessarily going to be super fun for the first six to eight weeks.

“But when you get a degree of health and you’ll be able to if truth be told simply move out of doors and revel in a run or revel in a consultation, it is the most productive factor. So I really like that folks have tapped into that and found out that.”

So is just a fad or will it stick around?

Bowden, who has her sights set on another marathon major this year, thinks it’s here to stay.

“We’ve all noticed how working can assist our psychological well being and the way it may be a actually nice a part of our regimen. So I’m hoping so long as the reminiscences of that survive, the working remains.

“I think now that the running clubs are bigger, there are more people doing it and there are more people sharing on social media, hopefully that’s enough to keep that trend going.”