A marathon is usually an individual undertaking with a great many people nearby doing exactly the same thing.
The new Team Marathon event coming to London in 2027 is trying a different arrangement: four runners, 10.55km each, all starting and running together in Hackney Wick, with the combined effort framed as one shared marathon experience.
Team Marathon London swaps the relay baton for company
The debut is scheduled for 22 May 2027 in Hackney Wick, East London. The format is not a conventional relay. Nobody waits anxiously in a changeover zone while a teammate materialises from the distance looking mildly betrayed by their own pacing strategy.
Instead, the four runners start together and stay in the race together. Each covers a 10.55km leg, giving the event a deliberately social shape rather than treating companionship as something to be resumed after the finish.
That distinction is the entire pitch. Team Marathon is aimed at runners who may care about the clock, but are not expected to treat it as the sole reason for turning up.
Hackney Wick will be part race course, part festival site
The route is planned around a short-loop course with spectator viewing areas, cheer zones, live music stages, DJs and a brass band. At its centre will be a festival-style race village with big screens, street food from London vendors, drinks and brand activations.
There is a practical idea underneath the bunting. Short loops and a central village should make it easier for teammates and supporters to remain involved throughout the afternoon, rather than seeing each other briefly at the start and then conducting a small search operation several hours later.
Staggered waves are intended to keep teams moving through the course across the afternoon. The result, if the format works as intended, should feel less like a procession towards a distant finish line and more like a running event with a fixed social centre.
Benchmark is betting on running as a group activity
Team Marathon is being launched by Benchmark, the sports events company behind the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay. Benchmark says it has delivered 86 of those relay events since 2008 across major cities, with more than 100,000 participants.
Its argument is that organised running has become more communal while many established race formats still revolve around individual performance.
“Put simply, the events market has not kept up. Existing events serve performance or participation. But the market is lacking an event that is a lifestyle-led, shared-experience, where running has become a cultural touchpoint on par with meeting a mate for coffee, for a gig, or to watch the match.” – Nick Keller, Benchmark’s CEO
That is also the risk. Creating a race with music, food and friends is the easy part to describe. Making all of it feel integral rather than bolted on is the harder editorial test, and probably the more interesting one.
Team Marathon tickets start at £26.20 per runner
Pre-sale access for the London event opens at 10 am on Wednesday 26 August 2026, with 100 founding team tickets available, covering 400 runners. The launch price is £26.20 per person.
Runners can register for pre-sale access through Team Marathon.
London is intended to be the first of three UK city events in 2027, followed by expansion into Europe. No further cities have been named in the supplied announcement, so the wider rollout remains ambition rather than itinerary for now.
A marathon idea built around staying together
The smartest part of Team Marathon may be what it removes. There is no need for one runner to shoulder the entire marathon distance, and no traditional relay format separating the team into four distinct performances. The point is to arrive with your people and, unusually for an endurance event, keep seeing them.
There will still be a shared time and an obvious sense of achievement. But the larger proposition is cultural: running as the reason to gather, rather than the excuse to disappear down the road alone.
London will find out in May 2027 whether that idea has legs. Four pairs of them, naturally.
