One of the most intriguing things about the 2012 Olympic Marathon in London is the course, which is routed to include many iconic London sights. It is comprised of four loops. The first one is 2.2-miles and is where the race begins. Loops 2, 3, and 4 are basically a large, twisted, 8-mile figure eight (same loop repeated three times).
Check out some of the stats about the course:
- The course contains 111 turns
- The longest straightaway is 1/2-mile
- There are three sections of the larger loop which contain a non-paved running surface made out of either cobblestone or marble.
All of this makes me wonder if anyone will be able to go super-low with the turns and varied surfaces. However, no one thought it would be possible to go low in 2008 at Beijing due to the hot and humid conditions, but Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya set an Olympic record with a time of 2:06:32. Should be fun to watch!