THE LONDON BALLOT SAID NO.
Run somewhere that says yes.
Every summer the same email lands in more than a million inboxes, and most of them open it standing in a kitchen, already knowing. Unsuccessful this time. For 2027 a record 1,338,544 people entered the London ballot and roughly 18,000 will be drawn — so about nineteen in every twenty are told no. If that was you, this page is for you, and it is not a consolation prize.
London is genuinely extraordinary, and I will not pretend otherwise further down. But somewhere in the disappointment a quieter question gets lost: did you want to run a marathon, or did you want to run that marathon? Because a start line does not have to be surrounded by fifty thousand strangers to be worth standing on. Three hours south of here there are races that will simply have you — no lottery, no rejection email — and each one has a story London cannot sell you.
So this is a runner writing to a runner. The numbers on this page are checked and sourced, the feeling is real, and the argument is simple: the spectacle is lovely, but the love of the thing is lovelier, and it travels.
Why this page exists
I am Serbian, I live in England, and I have watched friends here treat the London ballot like the only door into the sport. It is not. The Balkans run every spring and autumn, the fields are full of people who came from abroad on purpose, and you can enter tomorrow.
An honest note: I will point you to flights and hotels separately, never as a package, and I will never tell you to 'book your weekend here'. Choosing where to run is yours. This page just opens the door.
A MILLION PEOPLE, and one small door.
These are the 2027 London Marathon figures, and they explain why your inbox did what it did. The ballot is not a judgement on you as a runner. It is arithmetic — and the arithmetic is brutal.
So when the email says no, read it plainly: nineteen of every twenty hopefuls are turned away, and almost none of it is about your training. The door is small on purpose. The good news is that it is not the only door.
DID YOU WANT A MARATHON, or did you want the photograph?
Here is the concession first, because it is true: London on marathon day is one of the great sights in sport. Three-quarters of a million people line the streets. Strangers scream your name off your bib until you believe them. You come round a bend and there is Tower Bridge, and something in your chest goes that you did not know was there. I am not going to talk you out of wanting that, because you should want it.
But the disappointment of a rejection email only bites this hard because we have quietly agreed that this one race is the sport, and it is not. Twenty-six miles is twenty-six miles whether ten people watch or a hundred thousand do. The distance does not know the postcode. The medal does not weigh more for the crowd. And the version of you that crosses the line — the one who got up in the dark all winter, who learned what your legs do at mile twenty — that person turns up regardless of the address on the start line.
I think the spectacle is lovely and I think the love of the thing is lovelier, and only one of those two needs a lottery. The Balkans will not give you three-quarters of a million people. They will give you a bridge over a green river, a bay ringed with mountains, a city that knows exactly what it is to keep going — and a start line that said yes the moment you asked. What follows is three of them, told straight, with the numbers to back it up.
THE ONE THAT runs like a homecoming.
This is my city, so read the bias in plainly — and then look at what happens in April 2027, because it is not sentiment. The 40th Belgrade Marathon hosts the second European Running Championships, which means recreational runners share the same course as the continent's best, and the top twenty-five men and twenty-five women from each country actually score for their nation. You will not get that at London. You turn up, you pay a normal entry, and you run a European Championship route.
It is a proper international field without the wall around it. Around thirteen to fifteen thousand people run across the weekend, from seventy-two countries, and roughly three to four and a half thousand of them came from abroad on purpose. But only about fifteen hundred finish the full marathon, so it is big enough to feel like an occasion and small enough that the road belongs to you. Belgrade is loud, warm, cheap and unpolished, and it will feed you afterwards like you did it a favour by coming.
THE ONE THAT runs along a fjord.
If Belgrade is a city that grabs you, Boka is a landscape that quiets you. The Bokeški maraton runs point-to-point from Tivat to Kotor along the Bay of Kotor — a flooded river canyon so steep and still that people call it Europe's southernmost fjord, ringed by mountains that fall straight into the water. For a long stretch it is just you, the road, and a bay that does not look real. It is one of the most beautiful marathon routes I know of anywhere, and almost nobody outside the region has heard of it.
It runs across two days. The 5k, 10k and a children's race take place on 12 December, with the half marathon and full marathon following on 13 December. The marathon field is deliberately tiny — capped at just 700 runners — so this is the opposite of a Major — intimate, low-key, the kind of race where the start feels like a gathering. Entry is genuinely cheap, the December timing gives you a mild coastal winter rather than a heatwave, and from 2026 it counts toward Abbott age-group world-championship qualifying. Fly to Tivat, run beside the sea, be inside a medieval walled town by lunch.
THE ONE THAT runs through survival.
Photos courtesy of NGO Marathon Sarajevo
Some races are pretty. This one means something. Sarajevo spent the early 1990s under the longest siege of a capital city in modern history, and the streets you run through were, inside living memory, lines you could be killed for crossing. To line up and run them freely, cheered, on an ordinary September morning, is a quietly overwhelming thing — and the city knows it, and carries it with a dark humour and a warmth you do not forget. This is the smallest race here and, for a lot of people, the one that stays with them longest.
Be clear on the practicalities: Sarajevo's flagship is a half marathon, not a full, held alongside a 5k, with a modest field of a few hundred. If your heart is set on the full 42.2km, Bosnia's certified marathon is up in Banja Luka in spring. But if you will take thirteen emotional miles through Ottoman bazaars, Austro-Hungarian facades and hillsides of white headstones, Sarajevo gives you a race you feel in your throat, for the price of a nice dinner.
FOUR START LINES, side by side.
No spin, no averages hiding the truth — just the figures next to each other, so you can see exactly what you gain and what you give up. London is the benchmark column; the other three are what says yes.
| LONDON | BELGRADE | BOKA | SARAJEVO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next race | 24–25 Apr 2027 (two days) | 17–18 Apr 2027 | 12–13 Dec 2026 | 13 Sep 2026 |
| Distance | Marathon | Marathon · half · 10k | Marathon · half · 10k · 5k | Half · 5k |
| Field size | 56,640 finishers (world record) | ~13,000–15,000 · ~1,545 mktn finishers | Capped at 700 (marathon) | A few hundred |
| Runners from abroad | Vast — 167,687 non-UK applied for 2025 alone | ~3,000–4,500 from 72 countries | ~30 countries | Modest, international |
| How you get in | Public ballot — ~1 in 75 (or charity/GFA) | Open registration, no ballot | Open — but the cap can fill | Open registration |
| Cost to enter | £79.99 UK if drawn (or donate £49.99) | From €60 (→ €100) | From ~€40 | Small local fee (~35 KM) |
| What you're there for | 750,000 crowd · £87.3m charity · a Major | A European Championship course · warmth · value | The Bay of Kotor · quiet · scenery | A city that survived · meaning over spectacle |
Figures: London Marathon Events (2027 ballot, 2025 finishers & fundraising, international ballot); Belgrade Marathon & European Running Championships; Bokeški maraton / Tivat municipality; Sarajevo Half Marathon & NGO Marathon Sarajevo. Checked July 2026 — always confirm dates and fees on the official race site before booking.
THE CASE FOR LONDON, made fairly.
It would be cheap to sell you the Balkans by running London down, so I won't. London earns its place. It was one of the five original World Marathon Majors, it has been going since 1981, and in 2025 it set a Guinness World Record with 56,640 finishers — the largest marathon ever run. Three-quarters of a million people line the route, the BBC carries it to millions more, and in 2025 alone runners raised a record £87.3 million for charity, part of over £1.3 billion since it began. That is not marketing. That is a genuinely great thing that happens to your city once a year.
If a Major is specifically what you want — the crowd, the cause, the Tower Bridge photograph — then keep entering the ballot, and I hope your year comes. Wanting London is not the problem. Believing it is the only way to be a real marathoner is the problem. You are allowed to want both: put your name in the London hat every year, and in the meantime go and run a bay in Montenegro. One is a lottery. The other is a plane ticket.
IF LONDON SAYS NO, HERE'S THE MOVE
ENTER ONE THAT SAYS YES — NOW
Do not spend a year waiting on a maybe. Belgrade, Boka and Sarajevo all take open entries. You can be signed up for a spring marathon tonight, with a date to train toward instead of an email to dread.
MATCH THE RACE TO WHY YOU RUN
Want the occasion and a big international field? Belgrade. Want beauty and quiet? Boka. Want a day that means something? Sarajevo. Pick the feeling, not the postcode.
BOOK FLIGHTS AND HOTEL SEPARATELY
Fly direct where you can, book a room on its own, keep them unlinked. I will never sell you a bundled 'race weekend' — that is the law and it is also just cleaner. You stay in control of the trip.
KEEP LONDON IN THE BALLOT ANYWAY
None of this means giving up. Put your name in for London every year and run somewhere real while you wait. Two doors are better than one.
QUICK ANSWERS
Is Belgrade actually easy to get into?
Yes. There is no ballot — you register and you are in, at a fixed price that rises the longer you wait. The only reason to hurry is the cheaper early entry, not a lottery.
Will a Balkan marathon feel like a "real" one?
It is the same 42.2km, chip-timed, on measured courses — Belgrade is literally a European Championship route in 2027. What is smaller is the crowd, not the achievement.
Do I need to speak the language?
No. Race information is in English, younger locals speak it widely, and running needs very few words. A please and thank you in the local language will be met warmly.
Is it safe to travel there?
Belgrade, Kotor and Sarajevo are ordinary, welcoming European cities that host thousands of visiting runners every year. Use the same sense you would in any city and you will be fine.
Is it cheaper than London overall?
Almost always. Entry is a fraction of a Major, and Belgrade, the Montenegrin coast and Sarajevo are inexpensive places to eat and stay. The flight is often the biggest line on the trip.
Can I still run London one day too?
Of course — keep entering the ballot. This is not London or nothing. It is a way to keep running marathons you love while you wait for the year London says yes.
The rejection email is not a verdict on you. It is a lottery you can simply step around. Somewhere south of here a bridge crosses a green river, a bay sits still under grey mountains, and a city that survived the worst is out cheering people who chose to come. None of them are asking for your postcode. All of them will have you.
Run London if the year comes. But do not let a full inbox tell you the sport is closed. It is not. It never was. Go and find the start line that said yes.
Sources & Research
- London Marathon Events — record 1,338,544 applications for the 2027 ballot (results July 2026), up ~18% from 1,133,813 for 2026; ~18,000 public ballot places; two-day 2027 event (24–25 April) targeting 100,000 runners.
- London Marathon Events — 2025 TCS London Marathon: 56,640 finishers (Guinness World Record) and a record £87.3 million raised for charity; over £1.3 billion since 1981; ~750,000 spectators; original World Marathon Major.
- London Marathon 2026 ballot — UK entry fee £79.99 if selected, or an optional £49.99 donation on entry.
- Belgrade Marathon (bgdmarathon.org) & European Running Championships — 40th edition 17–18 April 2027, 2nd European Running Championships; ~13,000–15,000 participants from 72 countries, ~3,000–4,500 from abroad; open registration from €60.
- Bokeški maraton (bokamarathon.com) / Tivat municipality — 5k/10k/kids race 12 December, half & full marathon 13 December 2026 along the Bay of Kotor, marathon field capped at 700; entry from ~€40.
- Sarajevo Half Marathon (sarajevomarathon.ba) & NGO Marathon Sarajevo — 13 September 2026, half marathon and 5k; Banja Luka hosts Bosnia's World Athletics-certified full marathon in spring.
Figures checked July 2026. Races change dates and fees — always confirm on the official race website before booking travel. This page recommends flights and accommodation only as separate bookings, never as a combined package.