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London Marathon 2015
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Possibly, but all the other City marathons still fill, I just think it would let people know immeadiatly if they are in or not and possibly/hopefully deter those who enter on the strength of the tv coverage then dont take up place in October, plus the chances maybe that serious runners have club/gfa times to be able to enter
so you want london to be first come first served - unlike all other majors? This just couldn't work - without major changes to all the GFA, championship and club entry processes - all seems a bit OTT when it's working ok now?
London is what it is. If you're talented, you'll get a GFA place. If you're a slow, but dedicated, runner you'll either cough up and run for a charity or get lucky in the ballot.
Realistically, those of us who plod along further back help to give London it's atmosphere and get to tick an item off our bucket list. For us the thrill isn't going to be breaking records but the whole sense of occasion. Maybe the "serious "runners could just as well get their kicks (and their PBs) at other marathons. For us plodders, we need the whole vibe and spectacle of London.
It's really a race of two halves. Those who are racing and those who are there for the experience. Who can say which is more important. Seems like VLM manage to value both....
The reason they don't get the ballot sorted until October is because they have to get all of the deferred entries from last year, GFA places and club places sorted out before. Once these numbers are known then they then know how much to allocate to the ballot.
It seems that everyone's ideas for VLM seem to favour their individual circumstances. Eg. You have a few quid and don't qualify for GFA etc so you propose a higher entry fee and first come first served.
If you had a time of 3.09 you would probably be calling for more GFA places.
Just seen Charlie's post above and completely agree with that.
Thanks Millsy!
Can somebody explain what the deal is with a GFA place. I did VLM this year and wasn't far off a GFA time so I reckon I've got it in me to hit the GFA target in the future. If you do have a GFA time does that guarantee you a place? I would have thought that plenty of runners could achieve a GFA and that they would automatically fill all the available places so that there was nothing left for the ballot. (btw I don't mean for next year, I just mean in general)
Totally agree with charlie 4, and millsy, dont want to do away with the club, gfa, championship places, even though i didnt realise they were exclusive to only london, what i am saying is that i am sure people would be willing to pay a higher entry fee and know that they are in, rather than wait 6 months, i am sure by now that the organizers have a very good idea how many places are going to be given to the "lottery" before they open the system,
Skylarker 20,000 runners who all want to run London and who have GFA times- very unlikely. They get the GFA times from general marathon finishing times, working on times that are not going to be achievable by the masses- if more runners train harder and get faster times then the GFA times will be adjusted accordingly to avoid the situation you describe
But if they offer a higher priced entry fee for an instant place, VLM will just be accused of elitism.
I too have heard rumours that there are actually only 10,000 places available for the 130,000 of us who managed to get a spot in the 2015 ballot. All of the other places are given to charities, GFA, travel companies etc.
Yes, I'd love to run London, but is it worth getting bent out of shape over it? What will be, will be. (Until I get another rejection email in October, when I will chuck a massive tantrum and announce I'm taking up chess instead!!!)
GFA & FGFA is only around 2,000 places
I believe you running eye but I'm surprised. I wasn't far off GFA and I am by no means anything special. When I race (local events) I am usually in the top half of the field, but not by much, and once got a first for age cat prize but that was a race of only about 100 runners. I am F40-44. On that basis I supposed there would be masses of people who would qualify for GFA since I almost do. Of course maybe not everyone wants to run the London Marathon.
So maybe a lot if the people in front of you were males 18-40 who would need 3.05 to qualify.
Yeah, I did think of that. I am working in the assumption that the GFA is fair for everyone (naive or what) and that, for example, to get it you'd be performing at say 70% on age grading. But maybe what they actually do is set it to get an even gender/age distribution. I have to say, when I first saw my GFA requirement I was surprised it wasn't tougher.
Think the requirements for women have eased slightly over the past few years and are not as tough as others like, say, Boston? My guess is the women's times are more attainable to encourage more women to run? We're still very outnumbered at London (2:1?)
Well done you if you were close to 3h50 -you have until June to hit it to get a GFA for next year - worth a shot at a smaller marathon?
Most female runners would agree (I think) that GFA is easier for them to achieve than males.
Sub 3:45 upto 40 and 3:50 upto 50, I would think that a male time of 3:04 is more aligned with a female time of 3:29 or a bit faster.
It also depends on how you work out equivalent times, is it by % of finishing times, ie top 10% of finishing times or by the time that an equally we'll trained runner would achieve -which is a lot harder to gauge.
VMLM will make it easier to get in for females as they like most race organizers want a more balanced field
Thanks Gladrags but I think a marathon is going to be a once a year event for me. I'm a bit prone to injury, at the moment a dodgy foot, and I don't think my body wants me to do that amount of mileage all year round. I'll try and improve in a spring marathon next year and maybe get a GFA for London 2016! And there's always the very long shot of the ballot...
Ahhh, the ballot!!! And now we've gone full circle...
good luck everyone. There doesn't seem to be a magic formula to getting a spot, so we will all just have to wait and see. Roll on October.
Hmmmm. About that..... Not sure my legs quite understand the whole concept of run faster!
More training usually helps.
Distance first, then pace here. I am running faster, but it's a relative thing. I generally find runners very supportive of each other, regardless of pace. Hope that's the case here too!
Good luck with the training.
Millsy interesting comments, do you think most runners could achieve a GFA time if they put the effort in?.
When time do you think starts to be out of reach of the masses even with a lot of effort/ training and is reserved to the physiological gifted?
My improvement curve has flattened recently and I am looking at increasing training times/effort but very aware of injury and overtraining also aware that when it starts to get hard I can hide behind those worries!
Assuming you aren't cursed with persistent injury then I reckon anyone could train say five times a week. I wasn't managing that and if I was I feel sure that I would comfortably have achieved GFA. So, another big assumption here, if everyone was the same as me they could get a GFA on five sessions a week. I wonder how many people are putting in that training and not getting close. My gut feeling is not many.
I don't think everyone could get there but if you took everyone that entered the London ballot this year and put then on a structured training plan over a 2-4 year period I would guess that the majority would be able to get a GFA place, or very close to one.
Some categories are harder than others but on average if you put the effort in over a period of time they are not unrealistic.
so is a GFA time a guarantee - also is the age they state your age on race day or your age the date you rand the time? I ran 2.57 at Berlin aged 39 in Sept 2013 and 3.00.28 aged 40 in London this year - so deffo under whichever way i look at it as long as they do not change the times again like last year. Cancelled Marathon De Sables to do London again (want sub 3 there) so hope i have not mis-understood GFA.