London marathon 2013

Need a place desperately for London marathon 2013! Been trying to get into London for 6 years and still nothing!!! Possibly last chance as getting older and body in bits! Need a place and willing to pay! PLEASE HELP!

Comments

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    You could run really fast before January and get a Championship place.
  • I've heard a rumour that there are other marathons.
  • Unfortunately not that fast! Would need to shave about 45 minutes of my time! Never going to happen! Intermanaut: really! Get some friends then you may not have time to make silly comments!
  • Craig I don't understand why if you've been trying for six years you haven't had a guaranteed entry?



    I don't see how you can legitimately run the race now, if you join a club you may get a club place
  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Craig, what sort of answers were you looking to get? You have left it a bit late to get an entry for next yr.
  • Craig,

     

    Not all charities are asking for £2000.Have a look aroundimage

    Especially some of the lesser known ones,good luckimage

  • I was looking to get useful answers, for example susiebe1? I was told that as i have applied 6 times before i would get a place this was not the case? The reason I want to do London is because it is just something I wanted to do? Is that so bad!? I don't understand why everyone is so angry, if you have nothing useful to say just don't comment?



    Thanks for the helpful replies! , will look at charity entries and see if I can get anything slightly more achievable!
  • Also just looked into local running clubs another good option, will follow this up! Thanks!
  • if you are not already a member of a club you are unlikely to get a club place - for example, my running club has rules that govern who is eligible for places, and one of the rules is that you must have been a member of the club for at least a year.

    have you applied 6 times in a row for London? I know the rules have changed about automatic entry after applying 5 times, but to be honest I am not sure what those rules are - you could contact the organisers to verify that if you feel you should have had automatic entry.

    If you look around at all the charities you may find one that doesn't require you to raise an enormous amount. I don't think I would be capable of raising £2K - it is a massive amount

    However, London is not the mecca of marathons - Paris is fairly easy to get into. You are being a bit sensitive about the replies!

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Sorry if my answers were not useful but I was just trying my best.

    From your original question I understood it that you didn't want to raise loads of money for a charity so I offered what I believed to be a route to entry.



    There are loads of us on here that have been in your situation and have had to "make do" with another marathon while we keep trying for London. In 2009 I decided to sign up for Paris instead and really enjoyed it. I now do loads of local events now too which , for various reasons, are very enjoyable too.
  • Have a look at the CRUNCH website www.crunch.org.uk  It has a list of charities that still require runners - some asking a pledge of around £1250?

    Nearer the time you often find charities who still need runners and often drop their pledge requirements (also means less time to raise money though)

    I too really want to do London but havent had any luck and am not ever going to get a good for age. Prior to getting my expected rejection letter I entered Brighton (mainly so that my training had focus) and I am actually really excited about doing it but thats becasue for me its being able to achieve the distance rather than doing "London".

    My friend wants to do London and has already started raising money/saving for sponsorship for 2014!! She knows that she cant raise £2000 in 6 months and has her heart set on it. I guess you may have to consider this if its London that your hearts desire - but in the meantime book a different Spring marathon to keep up the training and you never know a place might come up - Alot of charities have reserve lists?

    Sorry to waffle..Good Luck!

     

  • Thanks for the last two posts! Really useful! Will have a look now and maybe risk it and wait until nearer the time? Like you said having a focus maybe useful so might look at other events around the same time just in case!



    Thanks again!
  • WardiWardi ✭✭✭

    Craig.. people aren't angry with you.  The forum gets lots of messages like this every year and TBH it gets a bit wearisome!   In fairness their are thousands of rejectees every year.  They would all like a place as well.  You can't expect to come on here and have someone wave a magic wand to get you a place, you are no more a special case than all the others who have missed out.  A charity is the only way now.  Intermanaut's remark that there are other marathons may seem flippant but it is very good advice.  Berlin, Barcelona, Paris & Dublin marathon's are all just as enjoyable as London - and easier to get in to!

     

  • Brighton's on Channel 4 next year Mrs D! I'm having my hair done specially image

  • I have my hello mum sign ready for Brighton too
  • Still places available for next years Paris marathon...
  • Craig,

    Last year I ran for a charity called VICTA (Visually Impaired Children Taking Action) as I too was desperate to run the London Marathon (I had run it the previous year through a club).  This is a wonderful charity, fairly small compared to many, and only asking for £1,250.  This is actually a very small sum to raise once you start getting the word out and about to every single person you know!!

    VICTA also offered plenty of support with weekly e-mails and cheering points on-route.  All of their communication was electronic to save them money (which I liked) and I felt like the people in the office really knew me and were behind me.

    Go on to their website and see what you think, do not dismiss the charity route, especially if you are running out of time.

    www.victa.org.uk 

  • Do one of the following to increase your chances or run one of the other many superb marathons that exist.

    • Join a running club
    • Run for a charity
    • Keep applying in the ballot. 

    If you are "desperate" you will find a charity like the majority on here have done.

  • If you look through the just giving website it has a huge list of charities still with places, pledge cost between 1200-2500. There are a couple that guarentee you a spot pretty much straight away rather than tell you in a couple of weeks. One example is APEC ... 250 deposit, 1500 pledge (reduced to 1000 I think if you raise it decemeber I think.)

    http://www.justgiving.com/en/marathon-places

    get some mass emails out. 

  • Hi

    I thought I'd enter the conversation from the point of view of  one of those small charities which ask for lower fundraising targets. The cost per place to the charities is quite high, so therefore we have to try to get the best return on our investment in order to provide the best services to our clients.

    However as we are quite small and we recognise the challenges of raising sponsorship (though many of our runners have exceeded their own expectations in the past) with golden bond places we are asking that our runners pledge to raise a minimum of £1250 for The Rainbow Centre for Children. We ask for a £100 deposit upfront to secure the place but we refund this once the fundraising target is reached.

    As a small organisation that provides free therapeutic support to children and their families affected by bereavement and life threatening illness, I can honestly say that the money raised by our Rainbow Runners will make a real difference to our work. If we are successful in recruiting 5 runners who each raise us £1250, this should provide us sufficient funds to provide 208 therapy sessions at the Centre or the equivalent of supporting 12 children or their parents through all their therapy. These funds are potentially 2% of our income for this financial year so it does make a significant difference.

    In the time that it takes you to read this post, a family’s life could have changed forever – they may have received a diagnosis of a terminal illness or received tragic the news that a loved one has died. This is where The Rainbow Centre for Children comes in. We support children and their families from Bristol and the surrounding area including Somerset, South Wales and Gloucestershire. We help families deal with the pain, grief, anger and sadness that can be caused by the death of a child or parent or their life threatening illness and the impact that has on individual family members as well as the family as a whole. Families come to us not only because someone has died from an illness but also as a result of road traffic accidents, suicide or murder. We offer art and music therapy to children, as these non-verbal therapies are a valuable means of expressing emotions when words simply can’t be found, counselling to older children and adults, and massage therapy to help relieve both the side effects of conventional medicine, or the physical symptoms of grief or simply to keep a carer healthy so they have the strength to continue to look after their loved ones. Each therapy session lasts for 50 minutes, and the children or their parents / carers come at the same time each week so they build up a relationship and trust with our therapists. All the therapy we provide is free of charge and we support families for as long as they need our help. Each therapy session costs The Rainbow Centre £30 a session and we rely entirely on voluntary donations for our existence.

    On a personal note as someone who is an erratic and very slow runner, I have entered and ran the last 3 Bath Half Marathons on behalf of my charity so I do understand the challenges in raising the sponsorship required. However it was the knowledge that my friends and colleagues had shown faith in me by sponsoring me to run that gave me the motivation to train through the winter months and run the whole distance on the day.

    If anyone is interested in our Golden Bond places you can apply online at our website http://www.rainbowcentre.org.uk/#/vlm-13-sign-up/4570408429

  • hope you get some uptake Rainbow Centre, thats an achievable amount to raise too, i ran the London marathon last year Craig and did it for the Down's Heart Group and had to raise £1500, I too found that they were with me every step of the way with the director giving me a big hug on mile 4 and making me cry with emotion then for the next 2 miles!!! and she met me at the end too, which was fabulous

    Regarding the ballot, i believe when Flora were sponsoring it, they had the rule that if you enter the ballot 5 times and got rejected you got a place automatically for the 6th attempt ( wish that were still the case I suspect for alot of runners who have been rejected on here ) but now Virgin have taken over sponsoring that is sadly not the case anymore

    My club rules are that you have to have been a member for a minimum of 12mths before you can enter  the club ballot, I wont be entering it as i have run it and feel that it would be nicer to give the chance to other people to run it

    Good luck and perhaps  you can update us once you have found  your place to run

  • London seems to be mainly a charity event these days & it's become harder & harder to get a place unless you go down this route.After getting fed up with the annual rejection i entered Paris & personally found it as good as London if not better, nicer course & it felt more of a runner's event.Booked with Eurostar on a package deal & really enjoyed it.London is still a good race but for me it's become far too gimmicky & some of the appeal has now sadly gone, i first ran London in the 80's & Paris reminded me of how London used to be.Good luck to anyone who can raise the amounts charities want for a place & it's great that the charities benefit but i just think it puts added pressure on the runner which for me running is not about.

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭

    In your original post you said that you were willing to pay for it - how much? I know someone on here was talking about the feasibility of doing a direct debit each month to cover the cost of the place e.g. 1500 GBP. How about that?

    I also appreciate how difficult it is to find a 'reasonable' charity place but there are some out there.

     

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