The weekend programme: Saturday - Walking Tour of the Finish
… and ideas on spectating the race
The idea of organising a tour of the Finish area came from one of our staff team, Jim Stewart, who was finding that many first-time runners were concerned about both:
After the race many had seemed totally unprepared for the volume of runners and spectators who had filled the north-eastern end of The Mall (where runners exit the finish zone). Here, thousands of runners and spectators jostle as they try to find each other whilst thousands of others try to exit the area and make their way to the nearest Underground stations to return to their hotels.
“Wall to wall people”, “shuffling not walking” and “where did he want us to meet him?” are but three phrases often used by newcomers during the height of activity on Sunday afternoon.
Both the finish for the runners and the meet and greet for the spectators are both well organised by London Marathon with a sound and well-proven structure. It works very efficiently but if you don’t understand “the plan” and are surrounded by thousands of equally excited people wanting to find and greet their heroes – then it can appear to be somewhat manic. Hence the suggestion that we do a tour on Saturday when the structure is in place but the crowds are absent. Spectators and runners can, together, see what will happen both where, and when, tomorrow (Sunday).
WRP now offer two, pre-race, guided tours of the area on Saturday morning when, as you will see from the photographs (taken on the 2009 tour), it was quiet. At that time it really is easy to see how it all works and not only agree a planned rendezvous point but also have “fall-back” plans - just in case that rendezvous should fail.
This tour is as much for the spectators as for the runners.
“As first time marathon runners, the tours of both the Start and the Finish were fantastic and they gave us great insight into what to expect on marathon morning.” The walking tour was really good for the “first-timer” as it explained where I was going to finish and the family were able to appreciate not just how they got to the finish but where we would meet. When mobile phones will not work in this area having some old-fashioned methods worked brilliantly.” |
The aims of the tour are very straightforward and sequential:
Meet: Outside Temple Underground station (District and Circle Lines)
Gather on the pavement (river-side) of the Victoria Embankment. Look for the red shirts/ sweaters of the WRP tour leaders… all of whom have run this event.
Leaders: John Joyner together with, amongst others,
Nigel Barker, Mike Bull – both based at Novotel London West
Malcolm Gammon, Steve Baxter – both based at Novotel Waterloo
Neale Jarrett – based at Novotel City South
Jim Stewart – based at Novotel Tower Bridge
Tour 1: 10.00 Max of 200 in groups of approximately 25 persons.
Tour 2: 12.30 Max of 200 in groups of approximately 25 persons.
With all the other activities that day it is difficult to find more staff available so the total of 200 really is the maximum that we can take on either Tour 1 or Tour 2. We work on the basis of “first booked = first reserved”!
Route: From Temple tube station the tour will go along the Victoria Embankment to Embankment Underground station before turning right into Northumberland Avenue up to Trafalgar Square and through Admiralty Arch into the Finish Area. Thereafter, from The Mall the route takes in St James’s Park, Horse Guards Parade and Parliament Square, finishing at Westminster Tube Station opposite the Houses of Parliament.
Note: