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Why do we do it to ourselves?
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lol at Buney!
MR - I don't think I would as London's not a vitally important part of my life - unlike some people who have it on their bucket list.
If I get in, I'm in, if I'm not, and I find something else to do. Afterall, a lot can happen in a year, I might get ill, have an accident or something that stops me running - why waste the opportunity?
As for the run times, it's always interesting to look at the stats to see how things compare year on year, don't you think? You can infer a lot from them, but they don't lie and are completely without prejudice or agendas.
Moscow Flyer - it's not sour grapes. I can get over a rejection letter. I'm not 10.
I don't mind waiting my turn, but I'm afraid I agree with every word Chiliblue said. It's fairer to say "You know what? I've had a turn through the ballot. Now I'll let someone else have a better chance of success by not putting in my greedy second application"
Just an opinion.
But those are the rules and we knew them before we entered, so I suppose you can have two pieces of chocolate cake. I don't have to agree with it though.
The one thing I will say is they should never have opened up entries online on the day of the race this year, as lots will get in and won't run, but I'm all for actual runners getting inane trying their luck again the following year.
You'll get no disagreement from me on that score MF! It was bloody insanity to open up the online while all the world was whipped up with the hype! I wonder how many of them really REALLY know what it's like to drag your sorry arse out of bed on a cold winter's morning in the fog / snow / howling wind and do an LSR???
Good luck with your training!
I got a part refund, deferment wasn't an option. If you're a charity runner then you should be able to defer (but then I don't think there is the same level of shortage when it comes to charity places) I am sure I could come up with a scenario that would support a deferment of a regular runner but only in light of the ballot system which isn't equitable in the first place.
For my money only GFA, Charity and Pro's should be able to run year in year out. Everyone else should just join a queue, if LM need to spread the field then just have several queues.
As to opening the ballot on the day? all that does is generate even more entrants (some of which haven't thought it through properly) which would be fine if they were struggling to fill slots. Which obviously they ain't.
Completely agree with not being able to defer - most of the races I run can't / don't allow deferment - maybe a partial refund, if you're lucky. It's to deter people entering for the sake of it. Oh, and in most, the place gets rolled down and offered to the next person in the waiting list to get in. You know, the people who actually want the place at the start line. If they don't want it ,the next person gets it. I don't think it would work with FLM though - way too big and too much admin to manage.
Oh yes, and as for openning the ballot on the same day as the marathon... grumble, grumble... great for publicity, bad for..,well, lets wait and see how many start.
You'd encourage as many people as possible so that you'd have a massive DNS rate so that you could book enough food and drink for 30000 even though 40-50000 have paid. You'd say that transferring your number was illegal even though you could computerise such a triviality. Why on earth would they care about being fair and letting people run who hadn't run before?
Sure there are lot of marathons out there to run, if you want to run one you can run one, simple! and you don't have to travel far to find an alternative near you.
I guess the thing that galls me is that for the last 3 years I have worked out my training and race diary on the basis that I will run FLM. I have to do that because of all the races (with perhaps the exception of certain IM races) its a bugger to get into due to the lottery nature of entry. Of course thats my choice I could just target another race and save myself alot of angst...but dag nabit I want to run the thing! I do have the club ballot to go yet, and I do try and keep my hopes under check every year...but with every rejection I can't help but get wound up. I'll get over it, but on the day I get the rejection I just can't help myself.
I hated running a year ago, I was a cyclist, not a runner and was never going to be. I did however have a burning ambition to do FLM, which is strange but it was one of those things that I always wanted to do. I got a place through Macmillan and soon found that the pressure of having to raise the money was a lot bigger than having to train.
As it turned out, I got hooked, but only lasted two months before getting a stress fracture. I had to pull out of the FLM but surprisingly couldn't defer to this year, although they still transferred the money over to the NY marathon. The pressure of then having to run NY to make sure I earned the £3500 I'd taken in donations was immense, as if I had to pull out of NY, that was it, no third chance.
Thankfully I will be there, but charity places do help people get into running, I've entered quite a few races and have even joined a club, but the other side of it is very hard work, getting to the sponsorship total, and sometimes people don't realise the hard work or pressures that come with it. I don't think many people who run for charity don't finish, or don't train, not if the charity means something to them.
I know I'm going off on a tangent slightly, but if people want to raise money for charity, they're a lot more likely to get it running the FLM, as that's what everyone knows. Trying to raise £2k+ by running say the Abingdon marathon is going to be a lot harder because Joe Public won't have heard of it, and the mentality of these sort of things tells us that the public don't believe it's a 'proper' marathon if it isn't London. Sad, but true.
Hi there. I thought I should drop by and say, yep, rejected too...
Amazingly though, I did not feel too depressed about it, it was just a little sting and went pretty fast.
I will have to keep trying, I suppose, as the rest of the world writing on this forum.
And no, I have no hard feelings for people running for a charity, I actually admire their commitment, I do not have the guts to run the risk of having to put my own money, because I have been unable to raise the amount requested.
So, unless a miracle occurs (and I do believe in miracles, by the way), I will find another marathon next year...
I'm trying not to be bitter, but the jazzed up screams from people with "9 forum posts" who have got in reallly get me down at this stage of the proceedings.
i know, I'm a bad person.....
Rejected too. Disappointed for about 5 minutes but now looking forward to being part of the mile17supporters. I don't know what it is about London but I had a ball last year (5 times reject place then). I think it must be a bit like marmite - you either love it or hate it.
I'm also fed up of the charity thing though and fed up seeing people's faces drop when I say I didn't raise any sponsorship money, as if its more impressive than running 26.2 miles. I run for myself and not for other people but it would still be nice to get told well done without the question "how much did you raise?"
Lol! Oh dear. Johnny Blaze, FLM is not an RW event. So just because people have only posted 9 times doesn't mean they don't run!
I am baffled by the conversation on here.
I'm in next year, because - shock horror - I deferred my entry for 2008.
I'm one of the lucky ones. I've entered twice, and got in twice. I entered last year because it is a ballot which doesn't have great odds, so thought it would be sensible (not selfish, sensible) to enter so that if I did get a rejection, I would 'have one in the bank' to get to the 5 years out, then you're in.
Everyone knows when they enter that they have a poor chance of getting in. I suppose you could say I'm being cocky because I knew I had my place already. There was also a rejection mag alongside the acceptance mag here, so there is someone else who didn't get in.
I've run it once before, 2 years ago when I got a charity place, but I also entered the ballot for that year too. You see, I knew I had poor odds of getting the ballot place but desperately wanted to run, so I got the charity place just in case. But, I got the ballot place too. So (and you can start throwing the sticks and stones now) I gave back the charity place so someone else on their waiting list could run it, and ran under my ballot number, but raised money anyway.
The rules are there so I can't see why so many people are complaining, other than sour grapes. It's hardly constructive. If you enter a raffle at work or at the school fair, or bet on a horse knowing the odds, do you when you don't win, go back and complain or winge?
At the risk of repeating myself in previous posts... you don't find someone in a school raffle binning the prize, then asking if their winning ticket can be tranferred through to next years prize either!
(but I do admire your luck at getting in twice on the bounce though!)
Like I said, I'm a bad person.
However HG, you're sounding a bit smug.
I imagine if you'd been rejected 4 years on the bounce you'd probably feel a bit p'd off too, although I suspect you'd say you wouldn't harbour even the slightest bit of resentment.
But I'm only human, y'see.....
What so baffling? Sure we know the rules and chances of getting in when we apply, but my application wasn't in support of the ballot it is just an acceptance that thats the way it had to be done....doesn't mean I like it!! or think it is the best way. It isn't a great system and there are better more equitable ways of allocating places. Pushing for change, highlighting problems with the system, suggesting other ways of doing things isn't 'sour grapes.' If you'd have asked me before the ballot outcome my angle on it would have been the same.
I am baffled that once you had decided to go down the charity route..you reconsidered because you had a ballot place...what's that all about?
Entered twice, got in twice, defered, dropped the charity place! ....doesn't that demonstrate that there is something not quite right with the FLM ballot system?
Not bad. Just plain odd in your approach to assessing what the forum means. If it were the argument for who goes into the RW organised places for the GNR, then maybe referring to the number of forum posts would matter. But I doubt FLM give a shit about how much time you spend on an internet forum in deciding who gets a place!
I'm not smug at all. There are plenty of other things I've entered and not been successful with. I just think it's a bit silly to complain about something when nothing untoward has happened.
The choice is there. If you really want to run it, you have the other option. Plenty of other races, if you enter too late, don't get a ballot, don't have the charity places there to fall back on. If it bothers everyone that much, rather than wingeing on here, I would do something constructive towards getting a place.
Chiliblue, what would you do instead? Have a queue forming two nights before entry opens around various cities round the UK? Then turn away 3/4 of the people who have turned up? That would be just as unfair on those people who have commitments they can't escape. There is a capacity in terms of numbers who can run. There have to be people who don't get in.
And as to my choice to run in the ballot - I entered the ballot long before I signed up with the charity. I signed up with the charity because I decided it meant so much to run the race. Then I got the ballot place. Giving away the charity place meant the charity could earn more money. What's wrong with that?
Hmm I am feeling a tad grouchy at being accused of sour grapes, is all.
Having hauled my sorry heiney round 800 miles so far this year, it seems to me I have paid my dues in putting in enough training to be able to run THE British marathon (whether you like it or not), plus the fact I have been rejected 4 times. Yes, I know it's a ballot, but crowing you have got through the ballot 2 years in succession is guaranteed to put the backs up of us serial rejects.
Still, like I say, the moral high ground is always a great place to be, if a mite lonely.
I think the internet can handle parsing entry criteria. No need for physical queues in this day and age.
You are obviously comfortable with your handling of the charity place, shown by your need to preempt any bad reaction when you first mentioned this in your post "(and you can start throwing the sticks and stones now)" Hey I sleep nights...if you're comfortable with it thats your own business.
PMSL!!!
I suppose I just think there is so much more to life than FLM. If that is your bee all and end all, then that's fine. It's not for me.
I'm not being moralistic. Realistic is what I call it. Play the game, the game plays you. Sometimes you win, sometimes....anyway - I'll go and do some more important things, rather than arguing about a race. I have to sleep to get up and do some training for another marathon in the morning. I'm sure I will have a lovely sleep tonight, thank you!