There may be almost a year to go until the starter's gun fires but the 2010 London Marathon has already broken a record.

The ballot for applications to enter the 30th edition of the race has now been closed, with more than 120,000 individuals winning the right to apply to run in the race.

Unprecedented demand saw the application website taken off-line after just two days and 16 hours — smashing the previous record, which stood at over 15 days.

Such was the clamour for places in the event, now sponsored by Virgin, that race organisers had to close the website on Monday to add extra capacity.

Race director David Bedford said: “We were expecting a massive response for next year's race but even we were surprised by such a fantastic reaction.”