just wondering about the different starts....i've never done london before, and am aiming for 3.20 ish, but am worried about getting held up at the start...i've no idea what it's like!
i gave my predicted time as 3.20 and i have a good for age place based on a 3.30 time. which start would that put me in? are there predicted time boundaries on the different starts or is it alphabetical or something?
alice
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I don't know how they work out what start to put you in. I think blue might be good for age, ballot, etc and red charity.
Each start is divided into pens and you will have a little sticker on your number that corresponds to which pen you go in at the start. You can move back pens but not forward. You are allocated a pen according to your predicted time.
I think I was in 5 last year for a time of 4hrs. You should be in 2/3 maybe. Probably about 5 mins to get through the start.
I think green is elite. I hope so anyway or I had better get some serious training in!
I have run 5 times , 3 from red (charity places) and twice from blue (the two times I was accepted.
You will get a little sticker teeling you what pen to start with,3h30 is pen 3 - I was in it this year - and it took about 80secs to get across the start.
Started from 8 in 2000 (charity place) and that took 10 minutes!
From pens 1-3 or maybe 4 from blue,there is little crowd trouble.
Good luck, won't be there this year (sniff!)
I am fairly confident of this information, since I ran with a GFA entry this year, although I was in pen 1.
i'm not too fussed if it's just a few minutes at the start, it was just that i was talking to a friend who did it last year, and she said she was walking for ages, but then again, she did 5 hrs something, so would have definately had a different start going by all the above...
it looks like just a bit of a forced warm up...that's cool.....on my last marathon it was freezing and i'd been waiting around in the cold for 2 hours so needed a warm up...did the first mile in 10 minutes!
alice
I think unless you're too far back that the people around you should be runnign at around the same pace, so hopefully won't hold you up too much.
As I understand it, red and blue are mass starts with green being good for age.
The elite men go from the red start at the very front and the championship AAA's men are close behind them and then the masses (ballot and charity places) are behind them.
The elite women go from the blue start half an hour before anyone else starts. Then there's also the Football lot who go off the blue start along with more mass starters (ballot and charity places). Good For Age is the green start
I got in through the ballot the first time and ran off the red start - ran off a guaranteed entry the second time and also started from the red start.
They changed it last year and the women kicked off 45 minutes before the men.
Golden Bond entrants get sent a guaranteed entry form the same as the Good For Age people and the runners with places through their Running Clubs which you fill in with what time you think you're likely to run and they allocate a pen to you based on that time.
Well we shall have to see.
I would have found it harder to run any quicker (even if i could have) due tu numbers and also all bottles on floor- I had twisted my ankle 1m before so was v paranoid !
I got my running number on my acceptance form (# 55461). My place was a GFA and my acceptance form came through with the Marathon magazine a couple of weeks back.
best
mm