The Virgin London Marathon

I received an update from the London Marathon newsletter that "Virgin has signed a five-year deal to be the official sponsor of the London Marathon...The £17m deal, which starts in 2010, will see Virgin take over from the current sponsors Flora. Sir Richard Branson commented: "It’s an epic and inspirational event and raises a fantastic amount of money for great causes. It’s the single biggest fundraising day on the planet and we want to make it even bigger."

Picture from London Marathon website

£17m is a lot of money for a marathon race. I tried Googling for the sponsorship of the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon but found nothing about it. But I am certainly sure we're nowhere near RM17m. Even the Singapore Marathon is only SGD 3.5million. So maybe we're talking about RM1.7m for KLIM. Correct me if this figure is an exaggeration.

You can never be sure with cost when you have FTAAA running things.

Another good news about the London Marathon is that the 2009 overseas ballot is now open. So if you are in Paris, Philadelphia, Doha, Melbourne, Penang or KL and are interested in doing the race, this is the time to sign up before the places are gone!!