There will be a familiar face to greet the 56,000 runners during Sunday’s London marathon, just when their legs are heavy and their mouths desert dry. Because, at mile 23, the former England footballer John Barnes will be handing out drinks and revelling in a near-perfect day with the race expected to break the world record for the most finishers and his former club Liverpool likely to win the Premier League.
“It’s going to be great,” he says. “I’ll be handing out Lucozade bottles at mile 23 as they’re the longest serving partner of the London Marathon, having worked with them for 24 years. From a charity point of view the race raises a lot of money, and for promoting fitness and mental health it’s also fantastic. And hopefully we’ll have 56,000 finishers, which will break the record of 55,646 held by New York.”
Barnes plans to stay for the first six hours to cheer runners on and he also expects to hear a familiar phrase from his association with Lucozade which began in the early 1990s.
“There was one advert where I looked like a mad scientist with big glasses and a straw,” he admits. “But that was cutting-edge back in 1991. And every time I walk down the street, people still say: ‘Lucozade gets to your thirst, fast’. So I think I’ve been promoting them forever. Because as much as that advert is not on TV anymore, everybody remembers me doing that ridiculous line as my body starts to shine.”
However the 61-year-old admits that he wishes he was young enough to be out there himself. “It’s a bit of a regret of mine, actually, because I’d love to have run a marathon,” he says. “I used to be a really good long distance runner from my Watford days, where we used to do 10-mile runs in training. And I always thought I’d do a marathon. But of course, it’s too late now.“
What Barnes has noticed though, is the surge in the sport. That is reflected in Sport England’s latest Active Lives report, which found almost 350,000 more adults ran between November 2023 and November 2024 – almost all of them women. “Social media has helped,” says Barnes. “People have always been running, but it has made it more organised and inclusive.”
After Barnes has finished his marathon duties, he hopes to end his Sunday by watching Liverpool clinch the Premier League title on TV by getting at least a point at home to Tottenham.
“It’s a huge achievement – and probably a bigger achievement than our team because we were expected to win the league when I was there,” he says. “I thought it would take time for Arne Slot to bed in, particularly after an iconic manager like Jürgen Klopp left. So I didn’t expect us to win the Premier League this season.”
“After we lost against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, it was all doom and gloom,” he adds. “But in terms of the consistency we’ve shown in a difficult league, where the likes of Bournemouth, Fulham and Brighton are beating big teams, we have been sensational.”
The great Liverpool title-winning team of 1987-88 only lost two league games all season – the same as Slot’s side. So how would Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold get on against the likes of Barnes, John Aldridge and Alan Hansen in their primes?
“I always say what rules are we playing?” replies Barnes. “If we are playing modern rules, they’ll beat us because we’ll end up with five men. And if we play by our rules, whereby you can get stuck in and they’re not used to that, we’ll beat them. Any Liverpool team that has won the league is probably similar in quality, but it’s good pub talk.
“Glenn Hoddle is my favourite player of all time from a technical perspective,” he adds. “And I think if Glenn was playing now, he’d be the best player in the world because he played when people were trying to break his legs. All the skilful players would love to play nowadays. Back then you needed danger money and eyes in the back of your head, but that’s life.”
And, Barnes concedes, there is another striking difference between the late 80s and the modern era. “In the old drinking days we used to mix Lucozade with a little something every now and again,” he says, a twinkle in his eye.