London Marathon - This is our London

Words and film by Marcus Brown

When I watched London marathons before I was a marathoner, whilst the leading runners were African. However as a Black British kid growing up in London, I couldn’t relate to both British and African running culture. Sport was never a priority in my household, and I wasn’t exposed to running clubs, or cross country as a youth. I couldn’t relate to the runners from the elites, or to the masses, based on the people that I saw in the area I lived and existed within.

However the London marathon was a celebration of the city I lived in. Often it is easy to live in a place but to not know it. The marathon seemed to provide a way to open up and show a space that was often closed off. For example Canary Wharf I remember going there as kid and it was fairly underdeveloped, and it’s a world apart from the place we see today.

Watching the London marathon on the BBC brought out the best of Londoners and the best of London. I was drawn to explore the unseen parts of my city that I called home. The marathon seemed to unite a group of people that in other days just passed each other like ships in the night.

The London marathon means a lot to me because it was my first experience of it I ran 4:55. I earned a GFA 2.56 and last Sunday I ran 3:00:06. So it has taken me on a massive journey revealing what I’m capable of, which I’ve learnt through running. This translates into other areas of our life’s and I hope that it inspires other people to take part.

The film aims to bridge the gap between the existing running community and encouraging new people into marathon running. It tells the stories of runners based internationally, as they share their honest, at times funny and truly unfiltered thoughts about what running the 2021 London marathon means to them.

Their stories create a powerful narrative showing what truly connects the runners behind the thousands of anonymous runners. Their collective voices show what London, and what it’s marathon means to them, and ultimately what it represents to us.

I hope that after watching the film that it inspires people to apply to run the 2022 London marathon.