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Brasher hails London's Marathon Million
Event director Hugh Brasher hailed the Virgin Money London Marathon's
#oneinamillion campaign as a fitting tribute to co-founder John Disley
whose vision and legacy will be honoured at the start of this Sunday's 36th
race.
At some moment on Sunday afternoon, the Marathon's one millionth finisher
will complete the 26.2-mile journey from Greenwich to Westminster, and to
mark the milestone all 2016 finishers are being asked to hold up their
index finger as they cross the Finish Line on The Mall.
Brasher, whose father Chris founded the race with Disley back in 1981,
explained that the campaign's focus on all the many thousands of runners
who have completed the challenge over the years is in the spirit of the
event's original and lasting mission.
"We are delighted that #oneinamillion is our campaign for this year," said
Brasher. "The focus is not on the individual who crosses the line as our
millionth finisher but on all the finishers over the years who have had
their own reasons for running, and the one million stories which have made
the event so special."
Brasher described Disley, who died on 8 February this year, as "a quiet
man" of enormous foresight whose legacy lives on in the 38,000 runners who
wind their way around the London Marathon course that he devised more than
36 years ago.
"John was the practical man, while my father was the inspirational figure,"
he said. "Dad would call a spade a spade and he could upset a few people.
John would step in afterwards and make sure things were OK.
"But he had great vision. The fact that our course has been pretty much the
same over 36 years, when London has changed so enormously, is testament to
John. He saw that the river should be central to the route and that has
been the key to its success ever since."
Disley's memory will be marked on Sunday by 30 seconds of applause before
the start of the race, while the annual John Disley Lifetime Achievement
Award will be presented to Hugh Jones, the first British winner of the
men's title in 1982 and now the event's course measurer.
"John invented the science of course measurement and Hugh has been our
course measurer since he stepped down, so it's very appropriate that he
will get the award," said Brasher.
The award was first presented in 2015 to women's world record holder Paula
Radcliffe following her farewell run. Both she and Jones embody one of the
event's six founding objectives, established by Disley and Brasher senior
in 1981 – 'to improve the overall standard and status of British marathon
running'.
"Those 'pillars' still resonate today after 36 years," said Brasher. "John
and my dad had amazing foresight to know back then what the race needed.
"It's from their foresight that we have The London Marathon Charitable
Trust. They decided to make the event not for profit and now The Trust has
helped more than 1,000 projects."
The Trust awards grants from the profits of London Marathon Events Limited,
the company that organises the race, to build and improve sports facilities
that inspire people to get involved in physical activity. More than £57.7
million has been granted since 1981, including more than £4.4 million in
2015 alone.
Meanwhile, another founding objective – 'to show that the family of man can
be united' – is realised every year by the millions that are raised for
charity by the Marathon's runners. More than £770 million has been raised
in 35 years, including £54.1 million in 2015 – a Guinness World Record
figure which is set to be raised for the eighth consecutive year in 2016.
According to Virgin Money Giving, donations are already up by 15 per cent
this year, Brasher revealed, while hopes are high that Sunday's race will
break last year's record finishers figure of 37,740 after some 247,000
applied to run in five days when the ballot opened in May last year.
"This year, 42 per cent of our applicants were women," said Brasher. "In
1981 it was less than five per cent. And 55 per cent were first-timers,
people who had never run a marathon before.
"This event is all about inspiring this generation and the next. That was
down to the founders' foresight too – they wanted to make it inclusive and
inspirational.
"Now it's the nation's biggest street party when 37 to 38,000 people come
to celebrate running a marathon."
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