Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon Olympic records stood as follows. According to IAAF statistics, the top ten fastest men's marathon times prior to the 2012 Olympics are as follows: Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon The men's marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place on the Olympic marathon street course on 12 August, the final day of the Games. The course started and finished on The Mall in central London. Runners completed one short circuit of around part of the City of Westminster and then three longer circuits of around Westminster, the Victoria Embankment and the City of London.
Bids for the 2012 Summer Olympics bid is announced. Following the announcement of the host city, the successful bid delegation signs the "Host City Contract" with the IOC, which delegates the responsibilities of the Games organisation to the city and respective NOC. The deadline to submit applications for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games was 15 July 2003. The nine cities that submitted bids before that date also met the 15 January 2004 deadline for submission of the first phase questionnaire. Through analysis of the questionnaires, the IOC gave a weighted-average score to each city based on the scores obtained in each of the questionnaire's eleven themes: