This year's Flora London Marathon will be the most IT-enabled race in the history of the event.

More than 33,000 runners competing in the marathon on 18 April will have their positions tracked and recorded by electronic tags attached their shoes.

Friends and family of competitors will also be able to follow their progress by signing up to an SMS text message service that will send athletes' positions as they make their way around the 26 mile, 385 yard course.

Supplier Datashare has been appointed to design, co-ordinate and manage the IT infrastructure for the event.

Paul Hepburn, technology consultant at the London Marathon, says eight Oracle databases will communicate with 40 PCs positioned around the course to keep track of athletes, relaying information to commentators, the BBC, press and race organisers.

'The whole design of everything is based around keeping it small,' he said.

'We do not try to use the latest technology, because the more complicated we make it, the more difficult it is on race day. We only get one go at this.'

When athletes register before the race, they will be given an electronic tag, supplied by Champion Chips, which will be attached to their shoe.

Special mats will be positioned every 5km along the marathon course. When an athlete runs over the mat, their time and position is sent to an Oracle database.

'At locations throughout the course when people run across some of the mats it will trigger an SMS message,' said Hepburn.

Mobile network Orange will provide the text service, which athletes have to sign up to before the race.

Because the marathon is a one-off event, the systems must as robust as possible and thoroughly tested, says Hepburn.

'This is a big project, but what is more crucial is the not the technology, but the timescales we have to deploy,' he said.

'What we've been doing is building all the PCs and taking all the databases to simulate everything on race day.'