One of the world's biggest foot races returns on Sunday, April 21 when the 2024 London Marathon takes place, with this latest World Marathon Major falling less than one week after the last one in Boston.
The London Marathon remains one of the most popular races in the world both to watch and partake in, with almost 600,000 entries to the ballot in 2024 as per the organisers, and that'll be doubly the case thanks to the 2024 Paris Olympics drumming up interest.
The London Marathon course will see runners start in the Greenwich village of Blackheath before looping through Woolwich and following the Thames past Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. Then they'll cross at Tower Bridge, conduct a long loop of the Isle of Dogs then proceed into central London. The final stretch sees runners pass Buckingham Palace and end on the Mall.
Countless people will turn up to watch the London Marathon in person, but if you can't make it (say, you live on the other side of the world!) then you'll be glad to know that you can watch it online or on TV too. So here's how to watch the 2024 London Marathon.
How to watch the 2024 London Marathon in the UK
In the UK, the BBC will be airing coverage of the London Marathon, though you'll have to look in a few different places to find it.
For general coverage, BBC One will air it from 8:30 am until 2 pm, when BBC Two will take over for an hour. You can watch from these channels using your TV but iPlayer also lets you stream from the BBC's channels over the internet. BBC Two will also be airing highlights at 6 pm.
iPlayer also has two other live streams which will air continuous footage from a fixed location. There's a Tower Bridge stream which will run from 11:30 am until 2:30 pm, and a Finish Line cam which will begin at 1 pm and end at 6 pm.
How to watch the 2024 London Marathon in the US
To watch the 2024 London Marathon in the US, you'll have to sign up for the premium athletics streaming subscription FloTrack, and you can find a link to its landing page here. Coverage begins at 4 am ET/1 am PT.
FloTrack costs $29.99 per month, but you can save loads of money by agreeing to an annual plan, which brings the monthly cost down to $12.49 each month (though you have to pay upfront).
How to watch the 2024 London Marathon in Australia
As in the US, FloTrack is expected to air the London Marathon livestream in Australia, so that will be your port of call to watch the event. Coverage begins at 6 pm.
FloTrack only shares its prices in USD in Australia, but the monthly price of USD$30 roughly coverts to AUD$46 at the time of writing, while the USD$12.50 annual price is around AUD$19.35.
How to watch the 2024 London Marathon everywhere else
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the London Marathon, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite shows, movies, events or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
