Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
London online entry
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Yeah - the social is great. Always have the Monday off.
It's the most famous marathon, but not the best marathon race in my view.
Ha - I was forced to call in sick!
Yeh I can think of about 10 other marathons I would far rather do than FLM
I'd love to run FLM, and missed the online madness last Sunday so will battle it out on Monday morning with everyone else. (I am running NYC for a second time this year for charity, which gobbles up my fundraising capacity). This year I'm doing Edinburgh - which you get an automtaic place at if you're rejected by the London ballot.
I missed FLM this year as I was coming back from a skiing trip, and en route by total coincidence was in a little town called Annecy, near Geneva, last Sunday - only to find that it was their annual marathon too. It's the prettiest place - the marathon is around a huge lake with a beautiful mountain backdrop and through the old town itself. It looked well organised, and was sponsored by Mizuno.
Might be worth a look as an alternative if you want a more peaceful experience (and especially if you'd have to travle to take part in FLM anyway).
I have run the London marathon on six occasions, twice through the ballot, once with club entry, once with GFA and twice with championship time. I can't fault the race organisation but the entry system sucks, I was rejected in the ballot for this years race and so will now only ever enter with a GFA guanteed time which I hope to do next weekend in Blackpool.
The race has been hijacked by charities at the expense of regular runners and in my opinion that is not fair.
Scabbie, i must admit i think the same, that it's been hijacked by the charities.
I was thinking that they should make it a 2 day marathon
1 day for all the charity/fun runners and the second day for those runners who want to increase times etc.
I've read a number of posts on here about people who get annoyed with those people who are held up by walkers etc. Yes i've entered the ballot online on Sunday because i like to watch it on TV. I'm only interested in watching the elite runners.
Well hows this.....I am registered.....and its 8:30 am......whatever happened to the lines opening at 9am...?
I am still not a fan of online entries and feel that the old ways are the best, but thats me, and I have come to the conclusion that I am a 'Ludite' and that I have become the 'Grumpy Old Man of running'.....I think I am going to change my user name to this.......
I have enjoyed reading your views and a huge thanks to Anon, I do apprecite his offer.......
I shall now live in peace now until October, when I will then kick off agin having been regected......!!! This marathon lark is doing nothing for my blood preasure.......
Happy running.....
Online entry has to be the right way to do it. If almost every other race of note uses online entry, then FLM should too. The paper-based system was archaic and over-bureaucratic.
My other gripe though is to wonder why, with ballot entries all taken up in April, do we have to wait until October for the result? The beauty of online entry is that all the data is already captured and stored, so there's no lengthy data-entry process. Even with the relatively small number of paper entries, surely all candidates will be on the system in May. So why wait a further 5 or 6 months to run the ballot? It also means that the charities could offer their places earlier, giving people more time to fund-raise.
Alfie, all of these things could be calculated in a matter of seconds using pretty rudimentary database manipulation.
I appreciate that there may be grey areas and marginal choices to be made etc but it doesn't take 6 months. More like 6 days.
Anyway, it's not a big deal but just one of those things I find strangely annoying. There are a numberof things I would do differently if it was up to me, but sadly it isn't up to me.
Ugh, this is so annoying!
I went to the FLM page and filled in the application form. When I got to the payment screen, it kept timing out, meaning I didn't get to see the "completion page" or even know if the payment or application had been submitted - if you get to the completion page and then go back and re-submit your application, you're automatically disqualified.
I went back to the FLM homepage and entered my details in again, but when I went back to resubmit my payment, but the screen said I was trying to make a duplicate payment, then timed out!
I want to enter the draw and get confirmation that I have done so. I don't want to keep entering and thus void all entries.
Do you receive any sort of confirmation by email once you've entered? Is there anything else I can do or do I just give up?
On a practical note, they can't give do the ballot until they know how many places are available. Given the GFA times are for 2007 or 2008, it would be unfair to only give people until April 2008 to get their time. So I'm guessing that's why they won't do anything with these entries until September.
That, of course, doesn't answer the simple question of why there can't be unlimited numbers of people in the ballot, having until September to enter rather than needing to do so in April. If I was running a marathon next month expecting to get a GFA time, I'd be in two minds about whether to enter the ballot at the moment (not that such a thing affects me, but it must be a consideration for many).
Grrl & Lady L
I kept getting timed out too, and eventually a mate of mine with a faster internet connection managed to get me registered. You get a confirmation email from FLM (via realbuzz), and I replied to that email to say I'd had difficulties getting through the payment bits so if they got multiple entries it wasn't me cheating, just getting chucked out each time. Presumably so many people will have had the same problems that they'll have to be generous on this.
Good luck!
I didn't tick the box to sign up to realbuzz, so I wouldn't get an email from them.
The payment screen said that I'd made a duplicate payment which indicates that I have got somewhere, but I don't know where.
Have you had any other confirmation emails? E.g. Confirmation of payment?
I tried again and got all the way through no problems.
Have received confirmation of payment and a confirmation email from FLM.
My advice to anyone who doesn't get through to the "Thank you" page, is to keep trying. As soon as I got to that page, I got sent the emails, so it's now clear that my other attempts were not successful.
Good luck!
Only six months to wait!
grrrl
Well done, with stamina like that you should do well over 26.2!
I think you may be right on the timing, Wirral Dave.
From memory - if you get a place via the ballot and then do a GFA they deal with it tidily, altholugh I've never achieved it so don't quote me on that! Must be a lot of people it happens to each year I'm sure.
Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to catch a ship. He knew what time the ship was due to load. He knew what he needed to do in order to get on board. But instead of going to the harbour, as he might have done, he decided to go into town to see some friends. By the time he came back, the ship had loaded up and gone. He had missed the boat. “This is so unfair!” he shouted, with clenched fists and angry face, jumping up and down on the quayside, as he watched the ship sail beyond the horizon.
He decided to try to catch the ship the following week. But the ship started loading early. ‘This is so unfair!’ he shouted as he boarded.
The captain’s reply was short and to the point. ‘We make our operating rules, not you. If you don’t like the way we do things, start your own ferry service. Ours is entirely optional.’