This year’s London Marathon was one for the books. Not only was the two-hour barrier broken (by not one, but two runners), the race claimed the largest number of marathon finishers (59,830) ever. I feel lucky to say that I was among them, thanks to an opportunity to run with Apple and a team of other runners from around the world.

The London Marathon was my first-ever 26.2 thirteen years ago—and the one that introduced me to the Majors and set me on the road to finishing them. (I ran the Sydney Marathon in August 2025 to claim my seventh star.) For reference, back in 2013, there were 34,280 finishers .

Courtesy Caitlin Carlson / STAK / Apple

But the number of medalists is not the only thing that’s changed in the intervening baker’s dozen of years.…