VLM 2018!!

1356717

Comments

  • runner-manrunner-man ✭✭✭

    If its the same as 2016, the ballot number will be 17,000. Although 247,069 applied. Those who entered for 2018 will have a 5% chance in getting a place.

    15,000 are for charities which LM makes their money. 6,000 reserved for good for age. The rest are deferred, club, elite, celebrity, marathon sponsors.

    Problem is supply and demand. London have a set number to stick to. They allow the freedom for anyone to enter. The more who enter, the less you will ever run London.

    Maybe a success for LM, but its a victim of it. If this continues, it will just turn people off the bother in entering if they have little chance in running.


  • GladragsGladrags ✭✭✭

    How do you know the figure is 17000? VMLM don't release this info so is this just a guess or do you know something?? your figures don't seem to allow for anyone to drop out if we assume roughly 40,000 run.

  • dave wood 4dave wood 4 ✭✭✭
    London is very near its capacity, I think that at most they would issue 42,000ish places, that allows for about 5% drop out, 39,000ish on the day. By the time you take out charity places (last year there were over 1550 with bonds) ,deferrals, good for age,clubs,volunteers,sponsers, overseas (and travel agents) A-Z list celebrities, I, really think that 10,000 is about the best we can expect for the "lottery" 
  • runner-manrunner-man ✭✭✭

    Well I know someone who use to work for LM and I asked how the places are allocated. The ballot tends to take the highest followed by charity. For 2014 it was 17,500. 2015, 2016 17,000. LM do not need to explain their figures except for how many are applying, accepting and running in total.

    I forgot to mention overseas runners as well as the others.

    20 years ago, 90% of the field would have been ballot. The gold bond scheme giving charities to buy places changed that. A good thing for charities but also LM as it brings greater revenue to run the marathon. If LM rely on ballot, they wouldn't survive today.


  • DadAgainDadAgain ✭✭✭
    You mean like New York, Chicago, Tokyo and Berlin don't survive being majority ballot places?
  • NickW2NickW2 ✭✭✭
    Of course they would survive, they just wouldn't pay as much appearance money to the elites and/or they would bump the entry fees up a bit
  • runner-manrunner-man ✭✭✭
    DadAgain said:
    You mean like New York, Chicago, Tokyo and Berlin don't survive being majority ballot places?

    The ones you mention charge substantially more than London. London charges £34. If they went back to a 90% ballot, fact is £34 per runner will not bring in enough to cover everything they do.

    Instead charging more to ballot runners, they shift thousands of places to charities at £200 a place. Brings the money in and makes it the biggest charity fund-raiser. Reduces ballot places knowingly rejected runners will opt to charities. LM and charities are a winner.

    If London kept the ballot to 90% of the field, the fee would have to be between £80-150. Question is will many of you be willing to pay?

  • Runner-man,
    Having run in over twenty countries I totally agree with you about prices - plus the cost of going there.
    I budget as folows:
    UK races - £100 if within 50 miles from London - £200 further afield
    Europe - between £300 - £700 (Berlin is going to cost me £800 but Luxembourg is £300.
    North America/Canada - £1000
    Far East - £2000

  • dave wood 4dave wood 4 ✭✭✭
    Surely paying £80+ for entry into London Marathon is a lot cheaper than paying a charity £1800+ for a bond place
  • DadAgainDadAgain ✭✭✭
    I think if the price of entry increased it would have almost ZERO impact on numbers! (Although it might make it more of an international event and less full of locals - which would no doubt change the flavour of the thing.

    From my perspective cost of races is something like this:

    Races I've done
    Gold Coast Marathon (local) - $120
    Melbourne Marathon - $1k (including flights & 3 days accommodation)
    London - $2k (including flights).. but involving fundraising of $4K
    Chicago - $5k (including flights, 2 weeks holiday accommodation in Chicago and NY)
    Berlin - $12-14k (including flights for family of 4 + share of accommodation in Berlin with extended family. Big mistake!! NEVER take family with you!!!! lol )

    Projected costs for races I will do:
    Tokyo  - $3k (including flights and 4 day travel package)
    New York - $6-7k (including flights, 3 day travel package & a few days holiday accommodation) 
    Boston -$5k (including flights & accommodation for 10-14 days)

    As you can see - with costs like that changing race entry fees by $100 each way doesnt really make any difference to the viability of any race.

    I'd suggest that even for residents of UK and not in London, an increase of ~£50 is fairly immaterial compared with the cost of getting to London (potentially twice: once for expo and once for race day) and may be accommodation in London for a day.

    I very much doubt there are many people who chose to run London Marathon simply because it is cheaper than other races!
  • KieranGKieranG ✭✭✭
    London is the one everyone wants to do. Everyone in the ballot stands as much chance as anyone else. I can't think of a fairer way to do it myself, irrespective of the cost (and, yes, I would have been happy to pay double what I did pay).

    I'm lucky, I got in at the first time of trying, but that just proves that everyone has a chance - someone has to get the places !

    Still far better odds than winning on a scratchcard, or of Leicester winning the Premier League last season, or of England winning the World Cup, ever. :-)
  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭
    Kieran, as a Scot, I agree with your last comment. Thankfully.  :)
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭
    Personally I think the ballot price of £34 is a good thing, and puts it in reach of more people.  There are a lot of keen runners who could never dream of being able to fork out £2,000/3,000 or more for a trip to New York or elsewhere, and even £34 plus travel costs is a stretch.  Ok, the chance of getting a ballot place is slim, but if you are lucky you can have a great time for not a lot of money.

    Increasing the cost makes it elitist in a different way to GFA/elite times - it makes it unaffordable to some.
  • I agree with all those in favour of status quo and it is why the London is the best race in the world (Toronto waterfront is my second favourite marathon).
  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭
    I don't think the organisers can keep everyone happy - there's much more demand than the course can cope with, so they have to find a way to choose who gets to run. The current set-up favours those who are willing to raise significant money for charity, those who are willing & able to run fast enough for GFA and still leave a sizeable chunk open to pot luck in a ballot.

    I'm not sure there's a better way, and a larger ballot simply gives more chance of success to those who don't want to run for charity or to put the effort into running fast enough to qualify (no offence meant to anyone), this doesn't seem particularly fair.

    I wouldn't change anything. The London marathon is open to anyone who wants to run it enough to put the work in.
  • Just to add that there are places given to every Athletics club affiliated to UKA and more ae given to those organisations who help through volunteering as marshals and at drinks stations, baggage lorries etc. The affected local athorities who close off roads etc are also given some places - this has accounted for 19 of my 33 consecutive marathons to date the others being through the ballot or for charities.
    I would consider taking out a personal loan to raise funds for a charity place in future to keep my streak going.
  • dave wood 4dave wood 4 ✭✭✭
    BUT at the end of the day HOW many places actually go to the ballot, my best estimate is 10,000, that gives a chance of 1in38, i.e. very little chance or non at all
  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭
    DW4, I think you're probably not far off. Even if the race was 100% ballot, the odds of getting in still wouldn't be great (1 in 10 or so?)

    But I still maintain that there's no perfectly fair way of distributing their places, and the idea of favouring runners who have pushed themselves to run faster, or who are members of running clubs or who help out at events or who raise money for charity seems fair to me, rather than people who've "just" submitted a ballot application.


  • On the plus side, at least they've moved the ballot entry slot back a bit - it used to open the day after the race (didn't it actually open on race day one time?) and be restricted to the first 120k or so entries, so the ballot was swamped with people entering on a whim after seeing it on TV and whose inspiration to run didn't last to the next weekend.
  • Good for Age entries are now open! I'm very excited to be able to apply for the first time after getting a rather unexpected 3:03:47 at the Liverpool Rock 'n' Roll Marathon two weeks ago.

    Entries are open until Friday 23 June at 5pm.

    https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/how-to-enter/good-age-entry/
  • Well done and congratulations PNEFC42 & Peebs89
  • Can I just ask everyone to distinguish between 
    First Ever Marathon
    First London Marathon
    So I can answer any future questions appropriately please.
  • I'm in... just got my GFA acceptance email this afternoon - all paid up :)

    For Harmander's benefit: First London Marathon but not first marathon (even though you already know this... :tongue:)

    I'm seriously contemplating Boston as well next year (not least, based on Harmander's goading) since my GFA time is also a BQ by more than 9 mins - but not quite the 10 mins needed for second wave of entry. I would be interested to hear from folks who've been stupid enough to attempt that double... how [bad] was doing London having done Boston 6 days earlier???


  • Little Nell,
    I did the double and enjoyed the experience - both are different in atmosphere and terrain - Boston, mainly downhill - yes more goading lol
  • Ha! Harmander... I nearly wrote you don't need to reply as I know what you'd say - LOL!

    I'm concerned about the air travel... what did people do to help recover, in general what's the best thing(s) to do in those interim 6 days to reduce the inevitable pain in London?
  • After vowing never to do another marathon I've got a GFA place considering it may be my only chance of doing London. Here's to a winter of long runs in the cold and wet!
  • Dear Mr Worry,
    Become a Warrior instead of a Worrier.
    Give me cold and wet weather any day/night.
    With GFA in the bag, go out and enjoy it next April.
    All the best
  • Paid for my GFA entry today. It feels very real now
  • For all those getting complacent in thinking VLM is ages away and for general motivation check out the video below - its about Fauja Singh.

     

Sign In or Register to comment.