More than 35,000 people competed in the 2009 Flora London Marathon, won by Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru.

Kenya’s Samuel Wanjiru has won the 2009 Flora London Marathon, completing the 26.2 mile race in a record 2 hours, 5 minutes, and 10 seconds (02:05:10) on Sunday 26 April.

It is the seventh time that a Kenyan has won the London Marathon, and 22 year old Wanjiru’s first time competing in the British event.

Irina Mikitenko, from Germany, won the woman’s race, defending her title with a time of 02:22:11. Great Britain’s Mara Yamauchi finished one minute later in second place. Australian Kurt Fearnley and Amanda McGrory from the US won the men’s and women’s wheelchair marathons, completing the race in 01:28:57 and 01:50:39 respectively.

The marathon route takes runners around all the major landmarks of the capital city, starting at Greenwich at 9:45am and finishing by 7pm at the Mall. Around 35,000 people ran the marathon, which raised more than £450 million for thousands of charities such as the RNLI, Cancer Research and the Anthony Nolan Trust. The official charity of the race was the Children’s Trust, based in Surrey.

Ten Guinness World Records were broken during the race, including the fastest-ever time for a runner wearing fancy dress – the UK’s Darren Stone , dressed as Bananaman, completed the race in 03:36:07.

The London Marathon now ranks as the second fastest-run marathon in the world, behind the Berlin Marathon by only two seconds.