I want to run a marathon but i'm not sure whether i should wait until I can get a place in London or enter a smaller marathon where i'm more likely to get in, such as New Forest. Meanwhile the clock is ticking and i'm hitting the dreaded half century this year. Any advice ?
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There are hundreds of marathons out there and most of them are fairly easy to get in to
Why do you think that London would be the better one for you?
What do you want from a marathon?
What is your level of fitness and what are your goals for completion?
Its a fun way to spend a few hours a week certainly
Having run some huge races and some much smaller ones, personally I much prefer the smaller ones. Fewer people means less hassle booking a nearby hotel, parking the car, meeting up with your friends/family at the end, if you're travelling by public transport less queueing for your bus/train, all that sort of thing. Also with the low key events there's often more of a chance to get chatting to random people at the start and then catch up with them again at the finish. Seems to me that the smaller events put on by volunteers and local clubs are often much better organised as well. I used to have a hankering after London, but I haven't bothered entering the ballot for the last few years now for all the reasons mentioned above.
I thought of entering through a charity place but they all seem to want guarantees of £2000. I'm not sure if i can raise that much. Which charity did you go with? How did the run go by the way ?
I've entered the New Forest Marathon. London was just too much hastle. Thanks for all your comments and suggestions, and roll on 21st September. At the end of the day a Marathon is 26. 2 miles wherever it's run and i look forward to the challenge.
Berlin certainly has plenty of support - especially at the end - my goodness the finish is amazing.
New York - way better crowds than London although I prefer the London Route.
Edinburgh - great course (I am scottish so a bit biased) not huge crowds but enough that I felt like shouting shut up at them.
Dublin is really nice - nice route, plenty of folks in places around the route but not the kind of madness you see at NY or London. Those two are a bit mental to be honest. I will never forget coming out of a dark lonely bridge, no noise except the sound of feet - coming up into daylight and rounding the corner onto Manhattan Island and just being hit with a wall of sound - it's pretty awesome.