365 marathons in 365 days - VMLM says no at last minute?!

Ben Rogers from Kent is running 365 marathons in 365 days- London was supposed to be the last one but the organisers are now saying no.....

despite having talked to the organisers about this fir some time, there is nothing Ben can do that is making them listen.

i don't know this guy personally but am outraged on his behalf

anyone got any ideas? I remember group pressure secured a last minute place for Mick n Phil a few years back?
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Comments

  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭
    "London was supposed to be the last one"........but obviously there wasn't any actual agreement on this? They can't just squeeze in any amount of extra people just because they really want to be there, but this sounds like an amazing achievement, would be great if they could find a way. Good publicity for VLM too.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    Sorry but he should have secured his place with VLM when everyone else was sorting out their places.   If he's running for charity doesn't his charity have a Gold Bond place they could have reserved for him.  First rule of any challenge put all your logistics in place, including your race entries.

    Why not try Southampton instead, on the same day.

    With Mick n Phil, Mick had a lot of friends on RW forum and I suspect RW put in a good word for them.   I've never heard of Ben Rogers.
  • I thinking two things: one, if it was so important why didn't he organise a proper place rather than rely on the organisers just giving him a place?  Ballot, club place, charity entry - lots of options. Two, there have been a few cases of theses challenges turning out to be not quite as honest as you'd like.  Not saying this guy is one of those, but I suspect VLM are a bit careful about getting caught out in the way that Skins did with Robert Young.

    I'd also say that running the last one somewhere else shouldn't diminish the achievement.
  • I don't understand. Why did he apply at the last minute?
  • GladragsGladrags ✭✭✭
    He had been in contact with them for some months- it's a communication thing- he thought they had agreed the place but they now say they hadn't.

    agree it could have been avoided- and he does have contingency plans- but I find it odd that they won't let him in given the muppet record breaking attempts they allow to have places st the green start (marathon in stilletoes anyone?!)

    no worries- like I say I don't know this guy
  • Presumably the record breakers have actually got places. Shame - I guess he's fund raising for a charity that doesn't have places and I doubt he's GFA if he's been doing a marathon a day.
  • Seems a bit strange stopping at 365... given he has already put that much effort in why not go for the record its only another 37 days. More strange is if he has run so many marathons already why have we not heard about it. Ben Smith was known about for a long time before he got anywhere near 365. I checked his just giving page and he has only raised £509.. he needs to learn to publicise himself !!
  • Jason TempertonJason Temperton ✭✭✭
    edited April 2017
    Actually, just checking his Strava feed, He isn't running a marathon a day. So that probably explains a lot.
  • Well, either that or he's not logging everything on strava.  Runs do happen without being uploaded, although if you're going to make claims about how far you go every day you need some evidence these days.  Slowtwitch would have a field day with his strava data.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    VLM have probably made a wise choice then not giving him a place.
  • GladragsGladrags ✭✭✭
    It's my fault that the title is badly worded-  he doesn't claim to run 26.2 each day- he claims to cover an average daily distance of 26.2 over the course of a year- I  think that's pretty impressive?

    clearly VMLM can choose how they allocate places- personally I thought this was worthwhile but if the wider RW community disagree then fair enough
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    So he's just adding up his training mileage as a challenge?   I could add up my training mileage and say I was running 2 to 3 marathons a week.
    And it appears not recording the mileage very well either according to Cheerful Dave.  I don't use Strava.

    What about his fundraising, I'm assuming that's what he's doing it for?   Apparently according to a posting above he's only raised £509.   He'd have been better just giving the charity £10 a week out of his own cash and not bothered with the running.
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    I've just checked, he has raised £3k on a virginmoney site as well, so he's got about £3,500 of his £100,000 target.....so he needs to raise £96k+ in the next week.

    I've copied this from his website.... 

    So, I will be running 9,563 miles over the next 12 months, 365 daily marathons, to raise money. My personal goal is to raise £100,000 for Pilgrims Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support, in a year.

    He does say 365 daily marathons.

    Sorry Gladrags I'm not having a go at you.
  • GladragsGladrags ✭✭✭
    No that's fair enough- I took it at face value and should have done my research.

    G
  • SHADESSHADES ✭✭✭✭
    You were just trying to help out, nothing wrong with that.
  • I agree the wording is a bit ambiguous from the site, but he's running ultras as well as marathons, which presumably allows him the odd day off, on average. I encountered him at Race to the Stones last year, which is 100k. He was planning on running marathon distance the next day too. Seemed like a nice guy.
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