London marathon mags

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Comments

  • I always thought it wasn't completely random. Else you would end up with a bottleneck with thousands of people around the 3.30 - 5hr runners.

    I'm sure there was a thread on here a few years ago explaining it in more detail.
  • BikoBiko ✭✭✭
    They probably didn't expect some geeks on the net going through their statements word for word. It won't be a pure ballot. It shouldn't be really, have to make sure you get a nice spread.
  • totally random... apart from the algorithms they use.....we know that it isnt a pure ballot so why maintain it is.,....image........and i agree that they are misleading when they mention 50,000

     

     after club places and sponsor places and charity places and GFA places and competition places and celebrity places.....I bet there is no more than 10,000 places in the ballot

  • No magazine, no e-mail - am I wrong to still hope?
  • the only results I've hear of so far are rejection magazines. so no news is good news?? image

    the comment referring to accepting 50,000 was made right after stating that nearly 250,000 applied in the ballot- deliberately misleading.

  • BikoBiko ✭✭✭

    I know this is cynical but I guess this ballot is all about increasing the hype. Making people they feel like they have a good chance (and not 1 in 15/20) And then 'encouraging' those who didn't win in the ballot to go down the charity route via bombarding them with e-mails.

  • Am adopting the "in till I'm out" school of thought so I'm with you Gladrags, no news is good news!image
  • BikoBiko ✭✭✭

    I applied for myself and my darling wife at the same time so I guess our numbers/applications are together. Still heard nothing, which I suspect means our postie had the day off yesterday or our mags will be landing on the doormat together sometime this morning. How romantic!

    Anticipation is fun if nothing else.

     

  • Loving you're optimism Gladrags and trigger2 but I think only a very small percentage received theirs yesterday and from what I've read, the majority will be landing on doormats today / tomorrow.

    The accepting 50,000 is hugely misleading as that includes GFA, overseas, British Championship places, celebs and obviously the huge amount of charity places. I've seen more than one person quote its as little as 7000 ballot places when you take out all of them, but personally I think it's more like 10,000 minimum. No one actually knows though apart from the organisers.  

  • It's true that not all the places are ballot places, but it's mainly charities and GFA, I think; there are hardly any celebs and British championship runners don't get in anyone's way so you could have as many of them as you liked (which is not actually that many).

  • I'm in!!! It's true about the bumblebee costume on the front!  Apparently, I did not get in on the original ballot but I got one of the 1000 bequest places!  Not even sure what these are - is this because I donated my entrance money?!!  Second time I have been lucky, last time in 2005!

    Now all I have got to do is get up from 5miles to 26miles!  

    Good luck everyone!

     

  • Well done pollym2 - I think you're right - a bequest place is one given to those who donated entrance money
  • Congrats pollym2 - yes, the additional 1000 places were for people who donated their fee.

  • London is extremely frustrating trying to get into it, the best way to do it is to train like a demon and get a Good For Age spot, otherwise your most likely route is to be looking to mug your mates for over two grand of cash, which is harder than running the flipping marathon!! Good luck to everyone in the ballot. I can't imagine there'd be more than 7,000 spaces available for the ballot, and I don't believe it could be completely random but when there's a gazillion people going for 7000 places does it really matter if it isn't completely random? You've got such a tiny chance of getting in anyway and maybe you're one of the lucky ones that has less people within your time band. VLM is a completely mental marathon, but it really isn't the only one out there so if you're intent on running a marathon take your custom elsewhere, don't get disheartened. The stats suggest that most of the ballot field will be first-time marathon runners, I think this in itself is telling, people enter on the off-chance that they'll get in, probably hoping to God that they don't!! image

  • ChynahChynah ✭✭✭

    No good telling people there are other marathons if what they want is London.  I eventually ran another marathon as my first as gave up waiting for a place but when I eventually ran London it was amazing.  I want another London place someday.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    London is pretty special, but when I first signed up for it I had no idea just how many other marathons there were to choose from. So I think it probably is worth telling people there are other marathons.

  • Are other marathons the same distance as London?

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    No, my Garmin made Berlin 26.5. Mugged off or what?!

  • Probably not piscator - lots of weaving in and out of people in London so you end up doing extra distance image

  • I think that if you really want to run a marathon then the location is perhaps less relevant, if you don't really want to run a marathon but you just want to be involved with the one you see everyone 'having fun at' on the telly then yes, saying there are other marathons available is a complete waste of time. Obviously there are plenty of people in both categories, there's no right or wrong reason for wanting to do VLM, but as PhilPub said quite a lot of people don't realise just how many marathons there actually are to choose from, not only in England but across the globe. I entered VLM twice in the noughties and if I'd got in it would've been a complete disaster, I wanted to be involved but I didn't reeeally want to run a marathon, I certainly wouldn't be signing up if it wasn't VLM! Saying that, I also didn't have a clue that there were all these other marathons going on at the same time.

    So all in all, I do think it is good telling people there are other places to go, if they really want to. image

    Paris is a far nicer course than VLM (in my opinion) and it's also run in April, so that's worth a look, if anyone is interested in adding a bit of a sightseeing holiday!

  • Piscator - No I don't reckon other marathons are the same distance, I measured it as 26.47 this year, I suspect that was from spending the whole race weaving in and out of people!!

  • Heroine in a half-shell wrote (see)

    I entered VLM twice in the noughties !

    No, you didn't.

    (sorry, that's my daily pedantry quota all gone.) image

  • Sorry, I entered the ballot twice, you're right! image

  • I think as a first marathon, London is far less intimidating then some others. Loads of water station, huge crowd, loads of runners of all levels.

    It took me a good few years to have the confidence to enter a smaller marathon (Halstead). I was fine. But a novice may have found the lack of water stations and crowds and the very low key start a bit off-putting.

    I have a love hate relation ship with the ballot. I once got in 3 years in a row but nothing before or since. But as it is my local marathon, I will persevere.

  • I don't think people realize that it's much easier to get a London Marathon place through running clubs. In my (admittedly limited) experience of 2 clubs, the ratio of applicants to places is more like 2-1 or 1-1. The thing is at running clubs, for a lot of members, either they can get GFA places anyway, OR they have run London already and are now interested in other events.

    And it's much less effort to show your face at a local club now and again (I get the "but I'm busy on club night evenings" thing, but you can still run in the club vest in races and/or help out at the odd club event at the weekend) than to try to raise £2k sponsorship. 

  • Very true Fido2Dogs - my running even mention the London places to try and get people to sign up!

    We've only been going 3 years but I got the place the first year as there were only 3 of us going for it and the other two wanted me to have it. Last year there were 2 places available with 4 in contention so pretty decent odds again. As we've got a lot of runners who haven't done a marathon yet and we've grown quite a bit we're expecting about 12 eligible for 3 places this year but still hugely better odds than initial ballot and another chance. As you say - in a more established club, a few will be good enough for GFA or a lot will have run it / not be interested.

  • Several of my running club have received their result today.. all rejection magazines. Wondering if being in a running club makes it more likely you'll get the magazine rejection rather than e-mail rejection based on the adverts being likely to be aimed more at them?

  • i received my acceptance mag in the post this morning, 20 years after running London I am ruinning again in 2016 image

  • That's fantastic Skelly! Well done
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