The postponement of Virgin Money London Marathon 2021 to Sunday 3 October from its usual April slot has created a 26.2-mile sized vacuum in the spring marathon calendar. Step forward ABP Southampton Marathon to fill the gap and ensure that thousands of eager marathon runners will still have a spring in their step on 25 April 2021.

ABP Southampton Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K events have been held on the same day as the London event for four of the past five years, giving London Marathon rejects and those who simply prefer the fresh air of the Hampshire port city for their marathon fix a viable alternative. 

Since launching in 2015, ABP Southampton Marathon has generated over £1.3million for the local economy each year and runners have raised over £1million for charities with up to 10,000 runners registering each year.

Business Development Director of organisers ReesLeisure, Chris Rees said: “London Marathon attracts over 40,000 runners each year, many of whom are international, so there could be challenges around people flying in and potentially needing to quarantine. Our ABP Southampton Marathon will go ahead as planned and we hope that the UK runners will consider the atmospheric ABP Southampton Marathon in April as a great alternative.” 

Rees continued: “With so many people taking up running through the recent lockdown and the positive steps we’re seeing towards Coronavirus precautions including vaccinations, we look forward to hosting the event and welcoming even more participants in 2021.”

Last year almost 7,000 runners took part in ABP Southampton Marathon events, with more than 1,000 completing the full marathon. The marathon winners were defending champion Richard Waldron (Southampton, 2:39:44) and W40 Kirsty Aked (Denmead Striders, 3:08:16).    

This year's event is virtual only after a massive effort to run the event on two alternative dates was thwarted. As many runners have already deferred entries to April 2021 the advice is to secure your place as early as possible 

Full race and entry details at ABP Southampton Marathon website here

Image courtesy ReesLeisure/ABP Southampton Marathon