London Marathon FAQs

You can email us at [email protected] or call us on 020 8394 8300 and ask to speak to a member of the London Marathon team (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm)

If you are successful in securing a charity place with us, you will receive an email from us to let you know. If you are successful, you will then be asked to pay a £100 non refundable registration fee to confirm your place with us, by an agreed date. You will also be asked to pledge to raise a minimum of £2,500 (excluding gift aid).

We will be reviewing applications on a regular basis. You will hear the outcome of your application by the end of July 2024.

Yes, you will be notified if you have been unsuccessful in securing a charity place with us.

We expect to close applications by the end of July 2024.

A ballot place refers to a place that you have secured with the TCS London Marathon event organisers via the public ballot. The ballot for the 2025 event has now closed.

Absolutely, we’d love to welcome you to the team! Please complete our ‘ballot place’ form to let us know, and a member of our team will be in touch.

Absolutely, we’d love to welcome you to the team! Please complete our ‘ballot place’ form to let us know, and a member of our team will be in touch.

If you are successful in securing a TCS London Marathon ballot place, you can choose to run for Samaritans. We’d love to welcome you to #TeamSamaritans! It's free to register and there is no minimum fundraising pledge for ballot place runners, we just ask you to raise as much as you can. You can join #TeamSamaritans with your ballot place, by completing our online form here.

You can of course apply to run with someone or as a group. Please make a note of this on our application form in the question ‘Please tell us why you would like to run the TCS London Marathon for Samaritans?’ However, please note that applications are viewed and offered on an individual basis.

The console is how you tell the London Marathon that you are taking part. Everyone with a charity place has to register on the console otherwise you cannot take part. The deadline for completing this is 4pm on Thursday 13 March 2025. We will do our very best to ensure that you register by this deadline.

If you don’t think you’re able to take part this year, please get in touch with us and we will see if deferring your place is an option.

Unfortunately its not possible for you to transfer your place to someone else. If you’re unable to take part this year, please let us know as soon as possible. We will look to replace you with someone from our waiting list.

We ask charity place runners to raise a minimum of £2,500 (excluding gift aid) and to pay a registration fee of £100, upon being offered a place.

There is no fundraising target for ballot place runners, we only ask you to raise what you can, to help support our services.

Your fundraising will help us recruit and train volunteers from all backgrounds and walks of life across the UK and Ireland. We need to make sure we always have enough volunteers to keep our helpline open 24/7 for anyone who needs someone to listen. With you by our side, we’ll be able to reach more people, answer more calls for help and, ultimately, save lives.

The first step will be to set up an Enthuse fundraising page.

We’ll support you throughout your TCS London Marathon journey with us, providing plenty of fundraising ideas, tips, and support along the way. You can see some of the runner resources here.

We’d love to welcome you to Team Samaritans, please complete our own place registration form and we’ll take it from there!

Gift aid is not included in your fundraising total. Unfortunately, gift aid is not guaranteed for charities, even when people claim gift aid on their donations, therefore it does not contribute to your £2,500 target.

We ask that you submit all monies raised within 4 weeks of your event date. However, if you do have any concerns or wish to continue your fundraising after this date, then please let us know.

We aren’t able to share or promote your event on our official social media channels, but please do mention us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn and we’d love to respond there.

You can access a variety of downloadable fundraising resources, such as bunting and event posters, on the runner resources section of our website.

For anything else to be ordered in the post, such as collection boxes, please get in touch with us by emailing [email protected].

As part of Team Samaritans, you will receive a free Samaritans running t-shirt or vest to help show support and raise awareness. We will be sending these out in the lead up to the marathon, along with iron-on letters to add to your top/vest.

Yes. If you need a different size, please get in touch with us at [email protected] and we will arrange for the correct size to be sent to you.

We will be providing tips and guidance on meeting your sponsorship target. If you have any concerns, then please let us know – our team are here to support!

If you have set up a page on JustGiving or Enthuse, the donations will be transferred automatically to the charity.

If you have raised any funds offline and wish to pay it in, there are many different ways:

By phone: Please call 03709 000 032 (we’re available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, but outside of these hours you can leave a voicemail and we’ll call you back within 48 hours).

By cheque: To donate by cheque please make your cheque payable to ‘Samaritans’. Your cheque can then be posted to the address below with a cover letter with your name, address, and the event that you took part in:
Samaritans Supporter Care
The Upper Mill
Kingston Road
Ewell, Surrey
KT17 2AF

By bank transfer: Please contact us by email at [email protected], and we’ll provide you with our bank details and a payment reference.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are considering withdrawing from the marathon by contacting us at [email protected]. We will discuss your options once you get in touch.

You will receive a registration email from London Marathon a week or so before event day. This will tell you all your important arrival information for marathon day, including your start wave and time, so please keep it safe.

If you and a your friend/family member are in different starting waves, it is possible for you to run together. Whoever is in the earlier starting wave will need to move back to join the later starter. Its not possible for the later starter to move forwards to an earlier wave.

You will need to collect your running pack (which contains your race number and timing chip) from the TCS London Marathon Running Show between Wednesday 23 April and Saturday 26 April. You can find details on opening times and location on the race organisers' website.

All runners must attend the London Marathon Running Show in-person in order to collect their running number and timing chip.

We’ll be there too, so make sure you stop by our stand, E16, to say hello!

You can nominate a friend/family member to go for you-or someone else who you know is running the London Marathon. They will be required to take photo ID, a copy of your photo ID and a letter confirming you are happy for them to collect your race pack for you. If you have any concerns about picking up your race pack and don’t have anyone to collect this for you, please let us know at [email protected]

Your race pack will include:

- your bib number, with timing chip attached, and safety pins to fix it to your top

- an official kitbag with a sticker matching your bib number.

The race starts in Greenwich Park. Details of what colour zone you'll be starting in will be sent to you in your final registration email a week or so before event day. We expect the Mass Race to start around 10:00 am.

It is down to each runner to plan their own journey to the start line. Do take time to check train times and journeys in advance of race day. And allow plenty of time.

Accommodation in London does get booked up very quickly for race weekend, so it’s worth booking this sooner rather than later. Think about whether you want an easy journey to the starting zone (in the Greenwich Park area) or if you want a shorter journey at the end (staying near the finish in Central London). You can read more about travel and road closures on the London Marathon website.

Friends and family can access some of the start area, however once you go through to your start wave colour, friends/family aren’t able to join your there unfortunately, it’s an area for runners only.

We will confirm our Samaritans cheerpoints closer to the time - keep an eye out for an email from us closer to the time with all the information on where we'll be!

We’ll have cheer points along the route (TBC) and suggest that your friends and family join us here. We’ll have our Samaritans branding at the cheer points so will be easier to spot.

Yes, we will have a post marathon reception (location TBC).

We will let you know closer to the time if there is any limit on the number of guests you're able to bring with you to the reception.

We will let you know all the information on the post-marathon reception closer to the day, including when the event is due to finish.