London Marathon 2025 sets 41 Guinness World Records
Wild costumes, world-class performances and inspiring feats turned the 2025 London Marathon, held on 27 April, into a record-breaking spectacle. With 41 Guinness World Records set in a single day, the event transformed London’s streets into a laboratory of glorious eccentricity and human achievement. It was no ordinary Sunday.
The London Marathon is an annual celebration of global running, bringing together elite competition, charitable causes and a huge number of runners in costume. But the 2025 edition has already entered the history books. Why? Because it broke record after record. No fewer than 41 Guinness World Records were set on that historic 27 April. From elite performances and outrageous costumes to raw emotion, here’s a look back at a Sunday when anything seemed possible, including running a marathon dressed as a dishwasher.
Numbers that make your head spin
Let’s start with the most impressive figure: 56,640 runners crossed the finish line this year. That is simply the highest number of finishers ever recorded in a road marathon, taking the record from New York (55,646 in 2019). A human tide, a sea of trainers, sweat, smiles, struggles and individual triumphs.
Yesterday's @LondonMarathon was the largest marathon EVER with 56,640 confirmed finishers along The Mall in London.
👏👏👏👏👏https://t.co/vegg3XtRCL pic.twitter.com/zO0N7lzKqN
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 28, 2025
Another collective record was set for the largest amount ever raised for charities in a single day. The result? More than £75 million raised. Utterly bonkers. The whole of London ran with heart and guts. Three-quarters of participants were running for a cause. The kind of numbers that restore your faith in humanity, or at least in the generosity of runners’ calves.
The great carnival of asphalt
The London Marathon is also paradise for runners chasing Guinness glory in costume. And this year, they went all in:
The fastest marathon dressed as a poop emoji record was broken. Yes, it’s a real category. And yes, someone had the courage, and the legs, to see it through to the end.
Another runner completed the marathon dressed as a dishwasher and finished the cycle without a hitch. Record ratified.
There was also a bespectacled wizard who broke the record for the fastest marathon dressed as a wizard. Harry Potter, endurance edition.
Axel Ramponi found himself with a serious rival. Wearing a three-piece suit, Soh Rui Yong completed the London course in a world-record time for the fastest marathon in a suit: 2:39:57.
One runner also smashed the record for the fastest marathon dressed as a board game, wearing a Monopoly-inspired outfit.
On the women’s side, Mandy Leach set the record for the fastest marathon dressed as a reptile. Staying nimble in scales is no mean feat.
Inspiration on the run
But the London Marathon is also about powerful stories. This year, Lloyd Martin, 19, became the youngest man with Down syndrome to complete a marathon. An extraordinary achievement, rightly celebrated at the finish. In a different kind of battle, Adele Roberts, a cancer survivor, broke the record for the fastest marathon run with a stoma. Proof that you can live fully, run fast and break through barriers, even after the unthinkable.
Give it up to Lloyd!!!
Today 19 year old Lloyd Martin became the youngest known person with Down syndrome to complete a marathon.
— Kevin W. (@Brink_Thinker) April 28, 2025
The rockets delivered
Amid all that, the stars of the road put on a show of their own. Tigst Assefa won the women’s race in a blistering 2:15:50, setting a world record in a women-only race. In the men’s race, Kenyan Sabastian Sawe devoured the 42.195 km in 2:02:27, running with clean, precise, surgical efficiency. Also worth noting was Eilish McColgan’s touching family milestone: she broke the Scottish women’s marathon record in 2:24:25, taking it from... her own mother, Liz McColgan. A family legacy carried at full stride.
What a start! 💨 Tigst Assefa runs the fastest female marathon (women-only race) with a time of 2:15:50! Congrats 💪#LondonMarathon pic.twitter.com/aVWSIvtOpy
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 27, 2025
Run in costume, run to heal, run to push your limits or to honour a memory: the 2025 London Marathon proved it was far more than a race. This reflection of society gives courage, absurdity and the beauty of effort a stage of their own. Above all, it is a place where records are broken with the legs as much as with the heart.
✔ If you want to browse all the records set at this year’s London Marathon, click here and you won’t be disappointed!