Image disclaimer: This is an AI generated illustrative image and does not depict an actual London Marathon event.
No World Marathon Major has done this before. The 2027 London Marathon will run on two separate days, splitting its elite, Championship and Good For Age fields by gender for the first time in the event’s history. Men go Saturday. Women go Sunday. And the qualifying standards and GFA cap are exactly the same as 2026.
Good For Age and Championship entry for the 2027 London Marathon opens Thursday 1 October 2026 at 4pm GMT and closes Thursday 29 October 2026. UK residents with a qualifying time from between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026 are eligible to apply.
- Entry window: 1 October 2026 (4pm GMT) to 29 October 2026
- Men’s GFA and Championship race day: Saturday 24 April 2027
- Women’s GFA and Championship race day: Sunday 25 April 2027
- GFA cap: 6,000 total — 3,000 men, 3,000 women
- Entry fee (if successful): £79.99
- Eligibility: UK residents only (GFA); registered UK athletics body members (Championship)
- Qualifying window: 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026
What Is the Double London Marathon 2027?
The 2027 edition is a one-off format that splits the race across two days on the same course. The elite field, Championship Entry runners and GFA runners will be separated by gender rather than competing inside the same mass field. Men race on Saturday 24 April. Women race on Sunday 25 April.
Ballot, charity and sports tour runners form a mixed gender mass field spread across both days. Those runners are told which day they race upon acceptance. For GFA and Championship runners, the day is fixed by gender. There is no choice involved.
Entry closes 29 October 2026. Official race results are required to verify your time. Strava screenshots and GPS exports will not be accepted. Your qualifying race must have been run on a certified course.
London Marathon 2027 Good For Age Times
The GFA cap for 2027 is 6,000 places total — 3,000 per gender. That is the same number as 2026 despite the two-day format. Places are allocated on a fastest-first basis within each age group, so hitting the qualifying standard is a requirement but not a guarantee of a place. The closer your time is to the outright age group standard, the better your chances of making the cut.
| Age Group | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 18-39 | sub 2:52 | sub 3:38 |
| 40-44 | sub 2:57 | sub 3:43 |
| 45-49 | sub 3:02 | sub 3:46 |
| 50-54 | sub 3:07 | sub 3:53 |
| 55-59 | sub 3:12 | sub 3:58 |
| 60-64 | sub 3:34 | sub 4:23 |
| 65-69 | sub 3:52 | sub 4:53 |
| 70-74 | sub 4:52 | sub 5:53 |
| 75-79 | sub 5:07 | sub 6:13 |
| 80-84 | sub 5:27 | sub 6:38 |
| 85-89 | sub 6:10 | sub 7:10 |
| 90+ | sub 7:20 | sub 7:45 |
Age is calculated at the time you ran your qualifying time, not on race day 2027. If you were 39 when you ran your qualifying marathon but will be 40 by April 2027, you apply under the 18-39 standards, not the 40-44 bracket.
London Marathon 2027 Championship Entry
Championship Entry opens alongside GFA on 1 October and closes 29 October 2026. The qualifying window is the same: 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. You must be a registered member of a UK athletics body — England Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Welsh Athletics or Athletics Northern Ireland — and your qualifying race must be certified by the national governing body of the country where it took place.
| Distance | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Marathon | sub 2:38 | sub 3:10 |
| Half Marathon | sub 1:11:30 | sub 1:26:00 |
Half marathon times are accepted for Championship Entry only if you have never completed a full marathon. Once you have a marathon finish on record, your Championship qualification must come from the marathon distance.
The Bottom Line
The Double London Marathon is a genuinely bold experiment. For GFA and Championship runners there is one tangible upside: you race a less congested course alongside only the elite field and your own cohort, not 50,000 people. The mechanics are unchanged from 2026 — same cap, same standards, same fastest-first allocation. The entry fee of £79.99 is charged after acceptance, not on application. If you have the qualifying time, apply before 29 October.