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Calling all Virgin London Marathon 2010 hopefuls
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Right, I'm off to the gym now. Keeping my eyes glued to the e-mail is just too sad. Good luck, everyone and have a great weekend.
It is very interesting to compare the performances of men and women in the GFA age groups, and to see the far higher proportions of women gaining a GFA time compared to men:
1820 M50 males, the fastest time 2:32, 43 mins faster than GFA, 7.25% of runners achieved a GFA
669 F50 females, the fastest time 2:53, 67 mins faster than GFA, 13.7% of runners achieved a GFA
959 M55 males, the fastest time 2:49, 26 mins faster than GFA, 4% of runners achieved a GFA
317 F55 females, the fastest time 3:11, 64 mins faster than GFA, 21.1% of runners achieved a GFA
549 M60 males, the fastest time 2:55, 35 minutes faster than GFA, 6% of runners achieved a GFA
146 F60 females, the fastest time 3:14, 76 mins faster than GFA, 24.5% of runners achieved a GFA
I completely agree!!
I've just ran my first marathon and in last 5 years have had 4 kids, 4 sections and a broken leg, I did the marathon in Dublin having only started running in june in 3hr48mins, I worked incredibly hard for the entire race and the result is: people just say it must be in my genetics....nothing to do with hard work, grit and determination!!!
Well done you for beating the smoking and gaining a husband!!!
Julieflies,
For the record - well done for your hard work, grit and determination
Dundee, agree that as you head through those 50s the task gets tougher. I didn't do my first marathon till I was 53 so the dice have already rolled for me, but good luck with it. I won't give up on it but somehow think that now my best chance could be when I hit 60, then it will only be 3.30!!
I have had to go offline for the last couple of hours to attend a meeting and hardly thought about a super 6 place, very interesting stuff about IVR systems! But as soon as I got back to the desk just had to look again. Yep nothing. I think its telling me I'm not actually up to this, a desk job I mean, it makes me too anxious!
Julieflies - that's good. My first was 3:36 and my fastest 2:56, so keep up the good work and who knows how much you'll improve
Dundee Runner - I think it's definitely hard to gain a GFA for a man 50+. It's also easier for a woman than a man to gain the time.
Also, I think for the wowen the half marathon qualifying time of sub 90 mins for the Championship start is easier to achieve than the full marathon qualifying time of 3:15. However, the men's half marathon time of 75 mins is harder to achieve than the 2:45 marathon. The women's is quite 'soft' really in comparison, but I guess it's to encourage more women into competitive running.
I doubt I'll get a GFA, I only need to knock off an hour, or 2:30/mile
, or if I can keep up the same speed for the next 14 years I only need to knock 45 minutes off my Mara PB - easy
Ruuuuubbbbbiiiiishhhhhh. The phone never rang.
All I want is to get a place in the VLM to keep my run of 11 consecutive Londons going.
It does appear that we're not among the chosen ones
But on the plus side for me I have longer to prepare before taking the giant step towards a marathon.....
Might well be back looking for some advise on how to start.... I really want to learn how to improve my speed but maybe that will come with some consistant training.
So I need a race to focus on.... And a schudule or two to download and maybe I'll write a Christmas list to Father Christmas.
Hilly my word that's fast!! Have lots of training to do to reach that level!!
at least we can now relax and look forward to the voting.......
I will be running Llanelli marathon the week before so will hopefully be able to follow the schedule of the 4:30 candidate
.I will break the 4:30 next year even without the great support package
I thought you & I were in with a good chance last year too Andy, never mind.
Will be interesting to see who pops up to vote for, and at least I can relax now and enjoy tonights pizza
Veterans.. don't be too downbeat. I ran my first mara in 1994 age 36 in 3:42. 8 years later I achieved a GFA at London with 3:12. I've now done 9 GFA times in a row (sadly no sub 3!) with a best time of 3:03 aged 50.
IMHO the best policy regarding age, within reason' is to ignore it. I achieved all of the above with sacrifice, determination and good old fashioned hard training and improved as I got older. Just like BR & Hilly actually. That Andy Sly ain't no carthorse either!
Well done to KK on that GFA time too, give it hell young lady.
Not you again Andy?
It was criminal you didn't get picked last time, never mind this year!
I hope they choose a worthy speed demon if they're not having you honey.
Not me then.......
Can anyone suggest a good spring marathon in the midlands to do as a first attempt?
Something with enough runners so that I won't get lonely on the way round?
Stratford, TNH.
Same day as London so you can pretend its not happening.
24 weeks to train then.
Next challenge sorted. Wonder if I can talk any of my mates into joining me........ Got a feeling I'm gonna be doing it on my own.
Is the 6hr cut off a 'most people will get round' time?
I only know one person who hasn't made it.
The cut off for the half way point is 11.84 miles and 2.25.00. I've never gone that slow in a training run, never mind a race!
The point is that this is NOT a walking course and as it is filled very quickly with FLM rejects they seem to want to discourage people from booking on a whim. Believe me - I had no difficulty making the cutoff and I'm not terribly fast.