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  • I echo Tmap - surely the Olympics can't be as anodyne as Coldplay.  If they are then big Seb should be hung drawn and quartered live in the stadium at the closing ceremony...

    Empty seats at big sporting events annoy me intensely.  The worst example was the cricket world cup in the West Indies which was played to almost empty stadiums pretty much all the way through.  Why don't the organisers have some local schools on standby and if any seat isn't taken say 30mins after the start then they give it to a local school kid.  Result - full stadiums and a generation of kids getting enthused about sport. 

  • Selbs - my example may not have been the best, but I'm really saying that it's the people that will make it a success. Ok, if we all take to the streets and wave our little flags and have a good time whilst Lord and Lady Loaded rattle their jewels inside the stadia, then great.
    Although, I fear that even that small avenue of pleasure may be denied as even the air that we breathe will have a sponsor's name on it, and special rules about how it is used those weeks.
  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭
    On a running front, lovely 7.5M last night.  Hit the 'animal treble': skylarks, deer and (my personal favourite) the 2 3-legged dogs.  I'm desperate to know if the owners are particularly caring or particularly careless, but don't know how to ask!
  • coroniumcoronium ✭✭✭

    LD - "....these Olympics belong to us, like museums and roads". What have you been smoking? Where they are held is almost an irrelevance, we know the Olympics belong to the IOC, Sony, NBC, Visa et al - to think anything else is not living in the real world (why else would you schedule the marathon to start at 11am in August!). My only problem with the overall process is that we weren't told how many tickets of each type there were available. I took a punt on going for a few expensive seats for the 10,000 final but this didn't work.

    Having run on Monday, I think having a 3.5 lapcourse is great in some ways for spectators, but other than the Embankment there aren't many great (free) places to spectate. The twisty turny bits around the City/St Pauls doesn’t lend itself to 100,000's of people watching (which as one of the few free events it may attract). Get there very early!

    Padams - top school night running

    61M for me so far this week, does help having the kick start on the first day of the week!

  • Lord Didsbury wrote (see)

    There were 6m tickets available, 1.2m applied. Of course, not everyone will get what they want, but there's a bit of scope there for some fair distribution.

    As LD points out, a lot of this is maths. If 6m applied for 1.2m tickets, there are 4.8m who didn't get any. I applied for 12 events at the cheapest price (£20 for four big people and also two kids under 16 so they are £13 and £15 each) and I think I have got 3 out of the 12. Using the 1.2 out of 6 then this is 1 in 5 and I should have got 2.4 so the 3 is probably on the lucky side.

    I applied for the cheaper tickets which I also assume are the less popular: no medals, no finals. I heard 1m were for the 100m final so really these can be thrown out of the equation and so it is 1.2m seats for 5m applications so 24% chance and on my 12 it is 2.88.

    I am not overly rich but we decided that as the Olympics fall at a time when we normally have a family holiday we would forego the holiday and watch the games instead. Only troubel is that now we have 1/3 of the games so we ned to find 2/3rds of a holiday so I suspect the vote will be to holiday as well at a later time.

  • TRTR ✭✭✭

    Padams - top midweek running there, although at your pace it takes a lot less "me" time !

    Selbs - you nutter, a few days after a marathon too ! Obviously no post marathon major issues.

    It was even pleasantly warm for my morning aerobics today - happy days!  

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    Padams - nice running indeed although no points for not getting fluids in.

    Selbs - glad to supply some pain

    7 x 800 kenyan hills off 60 seconds last night - first rep at 5.40 pace last rep at 5.10 pace other 5 in the gap somewhere.

    Went home and had dinner and got the worst cramp I have ever had outside a race. I had to stand still for 5 mins with an ice pack on to calm it down. Concern turned to relaxing as it all returned to normal. There is no bruising so 100% sure it is just cramp.

    70 mins on the bike at 19plus MPH this morning showed I am ok. I shall run shortly just to be sure though.
  • TmapTmap ✭✭✭
    Lord Didsbury wrote (see)
    Oh Tmap - hang your head in shame boy!

    If I have £50K sloshing about in my current account, and fancy a nice night out at the 100m final, and you have £1K and finding it hard to make ends meet and you love athletics, who is most likely to get tickets?

    But this is my point.  I DO have £50K sloshing around in my bank account (much to my bank manager's bemused consternation), I DID apply for lots of expensive tickets, including some real bankers in rowing heats, and I still didn't get any.

    I can deal with unfairness.  Life's unfair and we use money to allocate desirable, rare things to people who are willing to pay for them - that's how supermarkets work too.  It's operational crapness I can't cope with.

  • TRTR ✭✭✭
    Steady on TMap - you'll have the criminal underworld (lurking for Homer) or Imogen Thomas beating a path to your door with revelations like that. I'd like to have 50p sloshing about in my account.
  • PadamsPadams ✭✭✭

    Gobi - I hate carrying water while running, so it wasn't really possible to drink more than once (when I stopped to meet the others at the club). I always think it's good to make it harder in training e.g. drink less, eat less/nothing etc., but maybe that's counter-productive. Nice Kenyan hills!

    TR - about 2:15 which doesn't seem long at all compared to cycling training. It would be interesting to now go back to running only and see how much spare time I have!

    I'm not that bothered that I didn't get any tickets for athletics/cycling/swimming as I didn't really expect to get them. What does annoy me is the minor events I didn't get, which I would bet a lot of money will be half empty. I even reckon the morning athletics sessions will not be full - they rarely are at other Olympics.

  • GobiGobi ✭✭✭
    Lunchtime run we ok so all happy. Off to Dorset for part of this weekend as Rach has the national 25mile TT. I just hope to do some training.
  • TRTR ✭✭✭

    Padams – indeed, I’ve put in 5 rides of between 90 min and 2 hr 15min in the last 7 days, and none of em even counts as a long ride. If one of em was a 5hr ish then that would be a lot of “me” time.

  • No Olympics tickets for me either, really gutted.  Still we have the 2nd round to look forward to, I hear that tickets for the pre-qualifying for the tiddlywinks are still available.

    PMJ I think you have your no's around the wrong way, there were 1.2m applications for 6 million tickets so if system was equitable then there was sufficient tickets for each applicant to receive at least 4 tickets, which I think is what LD was trying to say, then again I am just bitter and twisted having lost out.

    Lovely 14 miles along the canal last night but regretted decision not to carry any water.

  • For those that may be interested, the UK Deca Ironman started today and finishes on Sunday next week.

    A bit hot today, so I wouldn't fancy being out there myself.
    You can pick up live scores via this link.

    http://www.enduromanlive.com/

    You may notice NeilK part of the sub 3 thread 48 hour treadmill record team, is currently placed 13th. Having already done one before I suspect he's being very shrewd with his pace judgement.

    Dull
  • TmapTmap ✭✭✭

    Will stop moaning now.

    My assumption for the rowing was that there'd be a couple of posh stands at the end, and the rest of the course was general entry.  That in retrospect was a stupid assumption and I should have gone for one category higher up.  And who cares anyway - now my eldest does rowing, I spend much of my weekends shivering on windy river banks.

    Would have been good to see some athletics, but again, it's a few minutes of excitement and long periods of dullness.

    Will be happy with the free cycling and marathon and plenty of barbecues.

  • Murph1 wrote (see)

    PMJ I think you have your no's around the wrong way, there were 1.2m applications for 6 million tickets so if system was equitable then there was sufficient tickets for each applicant to receive at least 4 tickets, which I think is what LD was trying to say, then again I am just bitter and twisted having lost out.

    Guilty for using somebody else's numbers when there were there and not digging out the ones I saw yesterday: the offical ones (according to the BBC) are that there were 20m applications for 6.6m tickets. I won't redo the maths, but it is still over subscribed by a factor of 3 so you would expect 1 in 3 and if you factor in the fact that a lot of them will be undersubscribed, then the oversubscribed ones will be 1 in 4, 5, 6 or more etc. Mens 100m final was 1m applying to 40,000 seats so that is 1 in 25. If you applied for  a pair, 1 in 50.
  • coroniumcoronium ✭✭✭

    >Mens 100m final was 1m applying to 40,000 seats so that is 1 in 25. If you applied for  a pair, 1 in 50. 
    maths not your strong point? e.g. odds of throwing a 6 with a dice is 1 in 6; odds of throwing 2 consecutive 6's is 1 in 36 not 1 in 12. 

    hmmmm, do you really think that if you applied for multiple tickets then the odds of getting them was to the power of the number applied for (I hope not)

    e.g. in the 1 in 25 scenario

    one ticket at 1 in 25 = 4% chance
    two tickets at 1 in 25 = (4%)^2 = 0.16%

    so no wonder that when I applied for 5 tickets for the family I didn't get any

    (4%)^5 = 0.00001% or about 1 in 10 million!

    I should have said scr*w the family, I'm going by myself........

    Maybe the Olympics it's also a dating business on the side - fill the stadium with people who only asked for one ticket.......

  • selbsselbs ✭✭✭

    yeah i think i probably reduced my chances in the application process by always applying for 4 tix.  but i THOUGHT by applying accross all the price bands i would get more than just 1 event, alas non.

    TR - u may be right ("nutter") - my legs/body are sore today.  May have been pushing my luck.  never mind sunday isn't a target race, it's just a pointer, i have a couple of targets in July so will try and pepare more sensibly for those, and then head down for October marathon training!

    Gobi - that sort of session (1km fast/1km steady) for 10km prep... woudl u epxect the pace u do in the 1km segments to be an indication of 10km pace - or not really, just a hard session?  I feel like it might be more like my 5km pace - was certainly hurting in last 1km rep. hope that cramp was a one off.  i haven't suffered with cramp since my football/rugby playing days - always early season - long may it continue i hope.

  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭
    I applied for selfish singleton tickets and was prepared to pay £275 for the sessions I expected to be most popular, IIRC.  And I got sweet FA in the Great Olympic Tickets Debacle.
  • selbsselbs ✭✭✭

    doesn't seem to be much logic to any of it!

    but that's probably because of the "great minds" at work.

  • RS78RS78 ✭✭✭

    Jools - that made me laugh about the dogs, haha

    Padams - that sounded like a rock hard run to be fair

    TR - that "Don" youtube clip is fairly full on. I like the look of those long runs uphill though......not quite at that speed to be fairimage

    Selbs - nutter, lol I;m going to give that session a go sometime I reckon!

    Olympic tickets site crashed when I tried to apply on the last night, ate my chinese binned the idea and went to bed. I'm not actually that fussed to be honest (a la Dull) but from what a lot of you have said and from what I heard on talksport the other day it sounds like a total farce. I'm going to the Crystal Palace athletics meet and I'll watch the marathon event in town. The rest I'll watch on tv.

    Very easy week running for me, felt very,very tired on monday afternoon after my 20 so I've eased right back as have felt a bit out of sorts this week, maybe a bug/cold or something. Felt fine on the run during and after but may have been run down without realising it. With my chequered history with fatigue I always er on the side of caution thesedays. Just some very easy 35-40 min easy runs this week and rest. Going to bin off the Beckenham 10k sunday unless I feel fantastic tomorrow but not worth the risk really. Fitness is good at the moment so not going to compromise anything, easy, relaxing weekend ahead.

    Nepal trip looks like it's out the window now due to study plans so will be aiming at Cabbage Patch 10 in October and possibly GSR as have friends to stay with in Pompey.

  • Tmap - I'm your new best friend, and can you lend me a monkey till next pay check please?

    PJ - it was 20m tickets applied for by 1.2m people. Ie, on average everyone applied for 18 tickets. How much more fair would it have been to say everyone gets 4 tickets, (that's 4.8m) and the remaining 1.2 m then get allocated on some basis.

    It's like handing out sweets to kids. Everyone gets some and they can scrap over the rest.

    I know this ideal system would need some refinement!

    Coro, of course you are right to agree about sponsor power, but we have still bought these games via a pledge to spend billions of quid. Sadly, without selling off some of it to sponsors it would not have happened. I can accept that ugly side.
  • coronium wrote (see)

    >Mens 100m final was 1m applying to 40,000 seats so that is 1 in 25. If you applied for  a pair, 1 in 50. 
    maths not your strong point? e.g. odds of throwing a 6 with a dice is 1 in 6; odds of throwing 2 consecutive 6's is 1 in 36 not 1 in 12. 

    Actually maths is my strong point. If there is a 1 in 25 chance of getting a ticket, then to get 2 you need to apply for 50. This means if you make one application for 2 tickets you stand a 1 in 25 chance which is your 2 applications times the 1 in 50 chance.
  • coroniumcoronium ✭✭✭
    PMJ - very good image But how did you apply for 50? I only had once chance to apply for 5 so still think my analysis holds true.....

    Edit - actually I don't follow your argument (yes, I may have had a few beers!), you agree that throwing 2 sixs in a row is 1 in 36? Why is this any different? I'm assuming a random distribution of tickets
  • coronium wrote (see)
    PMJ - very good image But how did you apply for 50? I only had once chance to apply for 5 so still think my analysis holds true..... Edit - actually I don't follow your argument (yes, I may have had a few beers!), you agree that throwing 2 sixs in a row is 1 in 36? Why is this any different? I'm assuming a random distribution of tickets


    Two sixes in a row is 1 in 36, but if you thow 6 times you expect 1 six, if you throw 12 times you expect 2 sixes. Say you applied for 1 ticket and a friend applied for 1 then, yes, you together have a 1 in 625 chance of both getting in, but that is not the posed question.

    I applied for 6 tickets for 12 events so I made 72 applications. I think I have 18 tickets which is 1 in 4.

  • coroniumcoronium ✭✭✭
    ok, I see what's happening - I was working on the assumption that if I applied for 5 tickets for one event, this is one application - hence (odds)^5. I thought I would get 0 or all 5, but maybe I'm wrong.

    Maths on a Friday night, we must have better things to do..... image
  • MtRMtR ✭✭✭
    My guess is the ballot was structured in the following way:

    1. Pick a lucky winner (who has asked for n tickets)
    2. Are there n tickets available at their preferred price? If yes, sell them and pick another winner.
    3. Are there n tickets available at a cheaper price in their price range? If yes, then sell them and pick another winner.
    4. Are there n tickets available at a more expensive price? If yes, then sell them and pick another winner.
    6. If no to 2,3 and 4, then move on to the next winner.
    7. Repeat until session sold out or there are no more applicants.

    That's the only way I can think of that evens out the chances regardless of how many tickets you apply for and allows for people to set a range above and below their desired price. In this case, applying for 1 ticket is very slightly better (as only they can get the last seat available if there's one spare at the end.

    If they did this then fair enough. However they probably did something much worse. It also doesn't resolve the main issues which I think are:

    1. There was no indication of how many tickets were available at each price point - this must have been known and would have allowed people to plan better.

    2. There was nothing to stop person A getting all the tickets they wanted, and person B getting none.

    I'm also a bit sceptical of one number. Apparently 'only' 250,000 out of 1.8 million (13.9%) got nothing. But amongst my contacts I'm seeing much bigger numbers: family (50%), friends (100%), colleagues (100%) and here (50% ish)
  • TmapTmap ✭✭✭
    Lord Didsbury wrote (see)
    Tmap - I'm your new best friend, and can you lend me a monkey till next pay check please?

    Not sure about a monkey, but you can have my dog if you like.

  • Hi all, just popping in to say hello. Slightly depressing reading all the great running over the past 3 weeks or so as I've been injured and become "fat" - Not hard when you're hammering the beer and takeaways at Uni. Oh well, next week I head home and I'll hopefully drop a stone or more and get back into the swing of things. Fingers crossed.

    Not sure if it's been mentioned but there's an excellent line-up for the Pre Classic 10,000 over in America tonight (tomorrow rather!) Solinsky, Rupp and Farah etc are all lining up, so it's probably going to be an excellent race.
  • I don't want to spoil the race results but I cannot for the life on me contain my excitement at what I just witnessed. I bit the bullet and decided to watch the race live! (The joys of being a student!)

    One of the best performances I will ever see from Mo Farah! Tears in my eyes.
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