An estimated 50,000 people will take to the London Marathon's three start lines in Greenwich this morning - each one driven by a specific goal.
Many will be looking to simply finish while raising what organisers expect to be a record amount north of £66m for charities, and others will be set on a specific time.
But what constitutes a good time is continuously changing - particularly among the quicker runners as shoe technology advancements lead to record times.
For next year those looking to qualify for a "Good For Age" spot in the London Marathon must run sub-2:55 (for men under the age of 39) to even apply. Yet a look at last year's results offers an insight into other benchmarks for those looking at the clock today.
Last year's winning times were eye-wateringly quick, with Kelvin Kiptum (who lost his life in a car accident earlier this year) running 2:01:25 before going on to break the world record in his next and final race in Chicago. Sifan Hassan won the women's event in a sprint finish with a time of 2:18:33 - and expectations are this year's field will look to break 2:17.
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Among the masses there were 28,488 male finishers - led by Japanese legend Yuki Kawauchi's 2:13:18, though he was effectively an elite. And 2,812 men broke the magical three-hour barrier, while 13,407 went sub-four. On the flip side eight men required more than nine hours of grind to reach the Mall.
A total of 20,216 women finished the mass race, led by Diana Bogantes Gonzalez of Costa Rica in an impressive 2:33:40. And 188 women ran sub-three, with 4,907 dipping under four hours. A dozen were on the course for more than nine hours.
This year's London Marathon course. (London Marathon)There are 65,725 people from 158 countries registered to run today - though several thousand will have withdrawn through injury or illness. A total of 270 runners will celebrate their birthday on marathon day, while the oldest is 91-year-old David Picksley and youngest is William Hamilton, who turned 18 on Friday.
Race director Hugh Brasher said: “This is the most popular marathon on the planet, 578,000 applied in seven days last year. I believe we'll break the world record for fundraising for an annual one-day event.
“We already hold that record at £66.4m raised. I'm fairly confident that will be broken. What we have to do is try and mix all the different groups who want to get in, whether they are fast for age, club runners, disabled runners, charity runners or international runners.
“In the balance of 578,000, 140,000 were international runners. That's unheralded. There were 39,000 alone from the USA. The economic benefit of this event to London is over £200m this year. We've got to balance all those things.”
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