The 2015 London Marathon has only just passed, but already applications are open for the 2016 marathon. Applications aren’t open for long though, so you need to apply quickly if you want to be running it next year. There are loads of great reasons to apply, and this guide will let you know how you can do it.

This year’s marathon took place on April 26th and was won by Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge. It was also Paula Radcliffe’s final competitive marathon. But it’s not the professionals that make the London Marathon so appealing, it’s the fact that ordinary people are running alongside the world’s best. If you’re an amateur footballer, there’s not much chance of you playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. But amateur runners get to run the same race as the athletes each year in London.

This years was the 35th anniversary of the London Marathon, and it proved to be the event’s most popular year too. 38,000 people, consisting of fundraisers, amateurs and professional athletes took part in the race this year. That’s more than ever before, and there might be even more still participating in next year’s event. There was also a quarter of a million people watching the race from the sidelines on London’s streets, and even more watching at home on television.

How to Enter

If you’re looking to run next year’s London Marathon, there are two main ways you can do it. The first is by entering the ballot; this is the route that most amateur runners choose. You’ll have to visit the London Marathon website and enter before the ballot closes. There are lot more entrants than places though, so you might not succeed in your application.

The other option is to enter as a charity runner. This means you’ll be raising money for a specific charity and running the marathon on their behalf. You will have to pay a fee to run for most charities, and they’ll also demand that you raise a certain amount of money if you’re accepted to run on their behalf.

Reasons to Run

There are lots of great reasons to run a marathon. For a lot of people, it acts as the climax of an effort to improve their fitness. You can spend the year leading up the race running and getting in good shape. Or maybe you just want to be able to say you completed the London Marathon, that’s a big achievement in itself.

It could be that there’s a charity you’re passionate about, and you want to do something big and meaningful to help it out. Or maybe you just want to get all the marathon giveaways and gifts. It’s most likely a combination of the above reasons, but whatever your reasons are, just go for it.

Deferred Entry

There is one other way to run the marathon, but it won’t apply to many people. If you were due to run the 2015 marathon but had to drop out through illness, you can defer your entry to the 2016 marathon.

If you’re a keen runner but have never run the London Marathon before, why not apply? People from all over the world run the race every year, and you could be one of them.