London 100 - Year One

Saturday 10th May 2025 saw our first ever edition of London 100.

When we dreamt of hosting this event we imagined runners from around the globe running their longest ever distance and experiencing all of the best icons that London has to offer. It's encapsulated perfectly in one of the first pictures that photographer Derrick took of runner 1121 - Max 'Marcionilio DE OLIVEIRA' who out of nowhere leapt high in the air with the majestic Big Ben (showing 07:09 am) in the background - the money shot.

Click HERE to see all of Derrick's images of London 100

There's a lot to unpick about this image of Max.

Firstly there were 100 brave souls (100 KM runners) who started at the Queen Mother Sports centre (QMSC) (London Victoria) from 07:00am and at that time of the morning the bridge, the River Thames and the first route EAST were perfectly quiet (that's not usually the case). Runners were set off in waves but as you can see with Max you can experience big parts of this event with other runners or take on the challenge with the freedom of you vs the route.

The QMSC is a great central location (easy to get to on all forms of Transport For London) and many overseas runners had stayed in one of the local hotels or travelled in from friends and family nearby.

The 100KM runners came first and were met by Race Director Carole and the team. London 100 are especially grateful to Exhale Coffee who came and set up and offered gorgeous free coffees to the runners whilst they picked up their race packs and met other competitors.

Race Director Paula was keen to show the runners all the helpful QR codes that were on the walls where runners could download the final route maps and especially using Komoot for those inexperiened with urban navigation:

Paula: "Last weekend's London 100 ultramarathon brought together an incredible mix of runners, including participants from Ireland and France and further afeild —many of whom weren’t familiar with the city or the route. To make navigation easier, we turned to Komoot, a tool that proved to be a surprise success. Given that not all athletes were comfortable using the navigation features on their watches, we created the route on Komoot and helped runners get set up during registration on their phones. The process was smooth—first-time users could simply select the free map of London, which Komoot offers as part of their sign-up. The platform worked like a pedestrian satnav, offering clear, turn-by-turn directions and even audio guidance, which many runners found incredibly helpful. It turned out to be a simple but powerful solution that kept everyone on track and focused on the run."

Final London 100KM wave - were the eventual winners in here?

London 100 really is an event for everyone. We had couples signed-up where one was doing 100Km and one 25KM. We had an amazing team from France where they were doing all three distances (and who stayed all day and all along the course supporting each other) and we had runners coming to do spectacular times and most there to try and beat our 17 hour cutoff for the full 100Km distance.

Some of our early morning runners and volunteers creating a beautiful vibe for us

As you can see in these pictures featuring two of our 50Km and 25Km waves we were lucky enough to have a day full of sunshine and the QMSC offered us a great spot with shade and access to all the facilities that ultra runners need.

The 2025 version of the 100KM was four legs with an order of EAST - SOUTH - NORTH and a final one in WEST London.

As you can see in this picture of superstar Berit our race bibs were colour co-ordinated with the colours that the routes were marked - First number = Pink and all of EAST was marked up with pink tape and dot stickers. South = Green. North = Orange and finally West was Pink.

Aid Stations:

Each leg had a main Aid Station positioned near the end of the leg and we had many of London's iconic spaces doubling as these support areas. In East London we were at Knees Up - one of London's most inventive runners event and coffee spaces and home of the legendary Your Friendly Runners.

Aid Station East - Legacy Races giving the runners their morning Electrolytes

Our friends from Legacy Races hosted Aid Station one with many East London runners either helping out or marshalling the loop. All aid stations were packed with sports nutrition from our partner Precision Fuel & Hydration - with caffeine gels and chews alongside the electrolyte drinks being the most popular at AS1.

Secret Missions:

In the weeks leading up to event day we contacted some of our ultramarathon friends to see who would be up for a secret mission. The idea was to get them to position themselves at different parts of the course where we though runners might need special encouragement. This included places where we knew the navigation may be more challenging or just more remote parts of the course where some runners may appreciate seeing a friendly runner face (and even more so if they had some snacks with them)

One of these special spaces was The Lucky Saint Pub on Devonshire St (no stranger themselves to hosting run clubs and sharing their delicious non-alcoholic drinks). Ben and Simon were tactically positioned outside the pub and held disguise by keeping refreshed. We love some of the interactions and stories that our runners shared of these helpful pop-ups - there will many more in 2026.

Other Secret missions happened with Jess and James at Brockwell Park and Mark and our partners Klattermusen at Sloane Square x

Throughout this blog we wanted to share your stories - the runners that made this first event the huge success that it was. On our social channels we shared a Q&A with Eleanor Coker who rightly was fearful about stepping up from 50Km to her first ever 100Km (something that many of this years runner were doing). Eleanor was amazing throughout the whole day and we are grateful that she shared these reflections:

Pic by Gigi

ELEANOR:

So what’s it like to try and run your first 100km on a hot spring/summer day, through the streets of London, with the very best running community in the business?  

PURE JOY

My trail-running heart may be in the mountains, but my life is here in London and yesterday this incredible route showed the city-as-running-destination sparkling in its very best light. So much to appreciate from the green oases of Sydenham and Crystal Palace, to the tourist highlights of the Southbank, and everywhere from Hampstead Heath to Camden, Soho to High Street Kensington buzzing with people living and loving their best sunshine-filled lives.

Amidst those many pedestrians, all the amazing fellow runners. With 25, 50 and 100km routes criss-crossing throughout the day, it was a real boost to cheer and high-five friends new and old as we passed or ran together. Equally in awe of those finishing with blistering pace and those with the strength and resilience to be out from dawn to dark. Plenty of space on these paths for us all.

Then every 12km or so the most wonderful volunteers and aid stations: from peaceful calm and care in Crystal Palace park after some red-hot climbs, to the phenomenal Westside Runners hype crew at 90km, so many hugely impactful acts of kindness to help each of us have the best day possible. Volunteering perhaps the true elite level of ultra running.

Oh yeah the running – I worked hard over the past months for this and my luck was in on the day. Problems I anticipated didn’t materialise, and I managed to work through others which came in their place. I’d thought I needed to wait another year before signing up to this distance – but none of us know what’s round the corner and I’m glad I didn’t. Do the thing. Succeed. Fail. Somewhere in between. The joyful parts are there for the taking whichever way.

To the extraordinary London 100 Team – ‘thank you’ never seems enough. Deeply grateful to have been part of such an inspiring celebration of London, running and community. Will be processing this one for a long time to come. 

Pic by Helen FB

London 100 Angels:

In the lead up to London 100 we shared to our runners that out on the course and in the Aid Stations there would be Angels.

Miles and one of the many big groups of family and friends supporting our runners all day

Helen MJ Ellen - London 100 Angels

It’s not uncommon in the beautiful ultramarathon community- the numbers of runners and the kindness of ultrarunners to give back means that some of the UKs best runners made themselves available to do some buddy running. We were totally blown away by how many brilliant female ultra runners we had with us (Jess, Lynne, Patti to name a few) who offered themselves up to run many miles with runners who were beginning to feel tired or need some guidance)

London 100 Partners.

We couldn't have dreamt of hosting such a great first event without the support of our partners. From Exhale Coffee gifting out tasty healthy coffee all morning, to Will and the team from SUMs socks , Katja from Stolt Running and Linda Usual Objections for showing them incredible running stores in our Brand Zone and spending the day with our runners and their friends solving many small problems that our runners faced.

Ben and Isobel our brilliant first place runners in the 25KM and recipients of SUMs

Will from SUMs showing their new brilliant range

Linda from Usual Objections - all items made locally in Hackney London

London 100KM Winners:

Throughout the day we saw some extraordinary performances from the 100KM field - the women had the highest rate of finisher success and our first ever champion was London based Anna Brown.

Anna in her London stride - Pic Zoe Salt

Anna has accomplished some amazing ultramarathons over the past few years (Maraton Des Sables, winner of the Lizzy Hawker trophy at Spartathlon and a big 100 mile win at Thames Path) and we were honoured to see some many strong runners from around the globe taking on our London urban 100KM.

After the first few 100KM legs there was nothing between our top two Peter Thomason (UK) and Sebastien Mahia (Belgium) with a tight race for the top 3 between Rob Jones, Stephen Macintosh and Matt Freeman.

As the final WEST leg started to take its grip and many runners found the heat taking it's toll Peter showed absolutely no let up and he romped home to a clear victory and an astonishing time of 8 Hours 39 minutes (that will take some beating next year.

Peter kindly shared his thoughts of taking part and ultimately being the fastest 100km runner in London:

"Amazing day in a sunny London taking on the L100. I was very excited to take part in the inaugural version of the race with so many great runners and communities involved.

I was hoping to be competitive and see what time I could get on a fairly flat 100km. The first leg there was a good group who set a strong pace as we headed East along Southbank and passed Big Ben for the first of three times with awesome views down the Thames. Pushing each other along we made it back to Victoria ahead of schedule and started heading for Crystal Palace in the second leg. Being a south Londoner, this was the most familiar to me so it felt good ticking off some more miles in home territory. Wonderful welcome from Frank and the team in Crystal Palace park and then back again towards HQ. At this stage, about a marathon in, the legs started complaining a bit and some elements of doubt popped up (have I gone our way too fast here?) but with ups and downs I was still doing ok. The North leg is amazing in terms of the parts of the city you see but was the most challenging with a lot of people, some hills and the day really starting to heat up but about halfway in I realised I’d moved into the lead which was a big boost. Leg four was another I had checked out before so gave it everything pushing for the last 25km and was over the moon to come back to the finish line and the awesome Camino team still in the lead. 100km is always going to have some low points but overall this was an amazing day that I’ll never forget. Huge thanks to all the volunteers and organising team who pulled off a great first event. I’m sure it’ll continue going from success to success".

17 Hour Cutoff:

As the hours rolled on and the day became neon London night we knew we had thirty plus London 100 Legends still out on the course.

West route takes the 100KM runners from Victoria down to the River Thames and a glorious view of Batterseaa Power Station. Then a wonderful route around Chelsea (Physic Garden and Barracks) before Sloane Square and passby Harrods. Runners go through the backstreets to Hyde Park and then along to Royal Albert Hall and the busyness of High St Kengingston.

A suprising hill up and over Holland Park and the West London gems await before the Aid Station and turn at the famous TV Centre (former BBC) at White City where our running friends from Westside Runners were there is high numbers.

So are you considering joining us for 2026?

Do register for interest on our London 100 website - you will be the first to hear when we release and kept up to date with all the news.

A big thank you to everyone who took part in 2025.

To all the incredible Aid Station teams and the London running communities that came out to support us. We loved being at Knees Up, Crystal Palace, Duke of St Albans, Helios Circle and Queen Mother Sports Centre.

Our 2025 Brand partners have elevated this event to another level. Aspire our amazing Charity Partner (our runners raised thousands of pounds for Aspire and their personal charities) - we highly recommend you thinking of a charity place in 2026 to avoid missing out on a place.

See you all in 2026 - Pic Derrick West