If you’ve been inspired, or guilt-tripped, over this Sunday’s London Marathon, then maybe you ought to consider applying for the 45th staging of the race, which will take place on Sunday April 27, 2025.

Get in the running: the entry ballot for the 2025 London Marathon opens tomorrow

The ballot for entries – where you pay an entry fee without first having to commit to raising thousands for a designated charity – opens tomorrow.

You don’t have long. The hugely over-subscribed ballot for next year’s event will be open until Friday April 26. “It is a completely random draw, just like the National Lottery,” the organisers say. The ballot results will be announced in July.

More than half a million people applied for the ballot for this year’s race, in which 50,000 – a record number – are expected to take part.

Event director Hugh Brasher, the son of London Marathon co-founder Chris Brasher (how ever did Hugh get that job?), said: “The London Marathon is unique in the fact that anyone can be part of it.

“You can stand on the same start line as the legends of sport and have your name cheered on by hundreds of thousands of people who line the streets. It is a day like no other when the whole of humanity comes together, and entering the 2025 TCS London Marathon ballot can be the first step towards being part of it.”

To enter the ballot for the 2025 TCS London Marathon, visit tcslondonmarathon.com

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com

• As featured on Google News Showcase

• We offer FREE ads to community groups when they have members who are paid subscribers to Inside Croydon

• Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here

• Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network

• Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London

• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine