Unsuccessful to get in VLM again !!!

Do they still guarantee entry on sixth application? Can't find anything on it this time but i am sure they used to?

also any recommendations for another marathon around the same time (give or take a month) ?

Comments

  • They used to but it's been phased out. It's pot luck now I'm afraid.

     

  • Pot luckindeed, year eight for me, still waiting to find out

  • If you're willing to raise money then Brighton still has some charity places.  Milton Keynes is early May (3 weeks post VLM).  The MK route is being changed (again) this year so I don't know the specifics, but there's no real hills (but quite a lot of underpasses).  I think Stratford is normally the same weekend as VLM- I've not done it but have heard good things about it.

  • Well I didn't get in not too worried am sure there are othere thingses in the works image

  • Snowdon is a wonderful marathon I loved it, London is a great race but h had a very lucky run in the late 80s/early 90s with 7 ins out of 8 but a couple were GFA in the end i got bored and wandered off into tri its only the last 4 years i have had the urge to run London again but 4  kickbacks so far ho hum cant moanimage

  • Where do you live?

    Your name should be a give a way, but I'm a tattoed scotsman and lived in England for a while.

    Depending how far you want to travel there are  a few marathons around the same time.

    Paris is the week before and if you enter early enough you would get a place.

    Edinburgh is in May and again you should be ok for a place if you enter soon.

    Good luck.

     

     

  • I've always wondered just how many of those places are really available through the ballot - how many places go to celebrity runners, all British athletic clubs, the charities, and tour companies in other countries. I know about the tours because living in Germany, out of the 6 times I've run London I've twice booked a tour with guaranteed start number. The downside is you have to travel on a scheduled flight and stay in an expensive hotel but you do have a tour guide and a bus to take you to the start on race morning instead of struggling to get on the Tube. Foreign competitors are charged more for entry to the race so it ends up being fairly expensive. The other times I got in once with a GFA, twice through the ballot, and once as a team member for Flora when they were still sponsoring the race. Won't do it again. I prefer the Berlin marathon.

  • thanks for the suggestions and I am living in West Wales now so most places are a long way away ! it will have to be UK for me next year as already spent enough on entry fees, accommodation etc.

    Edinburgh is tempting as can sell it to the wife with some time away from home!

  • I've got a place at FLM!  Thought I'd use it as useful training for Nice!  image  Not that I do much training!!

  • I'm very pleased to say I didn't get in so i can do the pirate half now ????

  • Got home to a 'sorry' mag
  • Got home to a 'You realise 99% of our spots are for charity places, and you have next to no chance of ever getting accepted because its full of applicants who have no intention of ever running a marathon unless they can get on TV'

    (it was quite a lengthy headline)

     

  • My first time at VLM in 2010 was after 5 failures with a guaranteed entry on 6th.  This was also the last year of the guaranteed scheme - guess they were getting too many who were simply waiting for the sixth year to get a place like me.  

    I did Paris and Edinburgh when I had previously failed to get into London - both great races and better weekends away with my wife.

  • Nope, that's nine rejections in a row now.

    Go Siggy! Sub 4!

  • Well done Siggy

    Still think the Pirate DIY half IM is better training for Nice

     

  • The Silent Assassin wrote (see)

    Well done Siggy

    Still think the Pirate DIY half IM is better training for Nice

     

    You mean you'll be serving French wine at the aid stations then?? image

  • Also rejected.

    Having complete Berlin in 2010, I'm also on their mailing list and it would seem their also heading in the direction of a ballot.  Hopefully not and money grabbing* and biased as VLM.

    I ran it last year for RAF Benevolent Fund as they needed to fill space left by last minute drop out.  They told me the charge for charity slots were £500 for a silver bond and up to double that for a gold bond (annually guaranteed entries).  On the basis VLM "offer" 25,000 places to charity their coffers start with at least £12m+ a year.

    Whilst I appreciate there is great cost in organising such a huge event in a capital city, the cost to charity is galling.  I'd take my stream of rejection magazines far better if I knew the 25,000 places set aside for charities, allowed them the very best opportunity to maximise their fundraising by being charged a reasonable amount, perhaps akin to that paid by the three and half ballot entries that are accepted annually!

  • Sub 4 with my knees Dusty?!!  Ha!  Ha!  I managed sub 4 on the first one I did and then I stopped doing the 'training' so haven't been close since.  And that was over 10 years ago!!

    I think I agree with you SA.  I've done London 3 times already!  So I am in a quandry!

    Indeed Raf, in a waiters outfit!  image  You get offered wine going around the Paris Marathon!  But only in *very* small beakers!  It took about five to get just one glass worth a few years ago!! "Oh non monsieur, pas un autre!"  That's the trouble with the Frogs, no sense of humour!!  image

  • I think as a charity 'runner' these days you have to raise about 2K Robbie!  It's shocking!  

    I got *very* cross with the Charity I ran for on my first occasion when, two weeks before the event, I got a letter reminding me that any shortfall in the amount required would have to be paid personally by me.  This was not having received any support from them at all, not even a running top!

  • This is from an email London Marathon send out last week. Make of it what you wish. What I will say....we're the 'fools' who keep entering every year......

    You see, the profit from the marathon is handed over to the London Marathon Charitable Trust – which allows it to generate money for good causes twice over. The entry fee you pay? The television and sponsorship money? The money from the pre-race Expo? They all go into the marathon, and help us pay for organising the event, the surplus is then given over to the Trust - Prince Harry became the Patron in February 2012, and takes a keen interest in our projects.

    How well do we run things? How much remains to be handed out? Grants worth more than £3.5 million from the surplus made by the London Marathon organisation last year have been awarded in grants to 91 projects in 24 local authority areas in London and Northampton. The total allocation this year of more than £4.3 million brings the overall sum of grants made by the Trust to date to nearly £50 million. And we remain, as we always have, about more than just athletics and distance running

     

  • Not me - I got tired of interminably being asked "so who are you raising money for"?

  • To rub salt into the wounds, I just received a text from my 69 year old Mother who applied for 2012, and got in and also applied for 2014 and again been accepted.  She'd previously applied once and run in mid-90s.  In short, 100% success.

    I'm changing DOB to something in 1800s on my next entry!

  • the only succes at my club - out of 20-30 applicants - was someone who's wife entered it for him and he say's he doesn't want to do it!!!

    I've got to raise £1000 for my Macmillan entry to IM Wales and would have to raise £2000 for the VLM! Know which one I'd rather do to raise money!!! ... and it will be easier getting money off people for doing the extra bit's on top image

  • Both MrsWildwill and myself got the SORRY magazine image

  • Sorry Smurf mag here too, might be a chance of a place through the running clubs ballot though. Think i'd rather do the DIY half

  • Yep me and lindi too image Not that we could of both run anyway as its not buggy firendly!

  • I'm in, Brighton and VLM double again for me. Might push Siggy round in his wheel chair

  • Brighton is the new VLM!

  • Distinctly blue here too. Just entered Manchester instead image.

    Doubt I have it in me but the thought of getting a GFA time appeals so I can decide where I want to run in 2015.

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