running for three months, but – like many runners and non-runners – has a sense that London is The Event that somehow seals the deal on your status as "a runner".Other marathons are available...Big David is one of many to point out that there's more

or the New Forest. And, unlike the Great North Run, it’s not on telly.But this marathon, in a sleepy market town just outside Oxford, is hugely popular. Race day isn't until October 22, but the event's 1,000 places have long been snapped up – 107 of them

Jostling for space as the runners get goingYou’d have to run laps around the Queen’s bedroom to get an event more regal than 25th Windsor Half Marathon. With Lord Seb Coe firing the starting pistol, Windsor Castle rarely out of sight and a route

It's not a marathon and it's not got Paula Radcliffe, but the Great North Run is one humdinger of an event.This road race in Tyne and Wear attracts the kind of attention and numbers that many full marathons can only dream about. On October 1, when