The London Marathon is no stranger to electronic technology. Even 15 years ago you could hear the near-synchronised beep of sports watches being fired up as scores of amateur runners stepped past the starting lines in Greenwich and Blackheath on an April morning.
Since then, smartphones have joined sugary gel packs, energy drinks and GPS-enabled watches as part of the common armoury of the long-distance runner as well as a near-essential item for people hoping to catch a glimpse of family and friends as they make their way along the 26.2-mile course. In the background, the technology deployed to help support the race has grown.
The London Marathon decided to launch a smartphone app for the race eight years ago. Despite being tested on other events and deployed just for the Apple iPhone, the sheer scale of the 2015 London event proved too much for the servers responsible for delivering data to the app. Some 20,000 people downloaded the software in the...