The London Marathon is an annual event and of the thousands of runners who take part, many of them have a story to tell as to why they are running the 26.2 mile (42.2 km) course around London.

This year the pressure was on for many of the athletes in the elite¹ race. With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, they wanted to ensure their places as Olympic marathon hopefuls for their countries. If they perform well in the marathon, they have a very good chance of being in the Olympic marathon event and doing well in it.

The men's race was won by Kenyan, Martin Lel, who finished the race in just two hours and five minutes, a personal best time for him. Irina Mikitenko was the winner of the women's race and this was astonishingly only her second race at marathon distance!

There was also a group of 24 runners who have competed in every single one of the 28 London marathons. Jeff Aston is one of them and at 60 years old, he finished in just over three and a half hours.

A lot of the non-competitive runners take part in the marathon to raise money for charity. Jeff estimates² he has raised about £25,000 (350,000 RMB) over the 28 years he has been running.

Jane Tomlinson is a well-known name in the UK. She raised millions for charity doing long cycle rides, marathons and triathlons whilst³ battling terminal⁴ cancer, a battle she sadly lost last year.

As a tribute⁵ to Jane, her husband and daughter took part in the marathon. They managed to raise £20,000 (280,000 RMB) for a charity set up in Jane's name.

Another astonishing feat⁶ was blind runner Dave Heeley completing the marathon. As if that wasn't enough, this was his seventh marathon in seven days, as he took part in a special challenge which took him to seven countries.

Well done to all the inspirational runners on the challenges they met and the money they raised.