Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
VLM 2014 Good For Age
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
We signed too. It's outrageous that they changed the times without any notice to give people chance to train for another one. I.e. 6 months notice as a minimum really. Have you seen their comments about it on their Facebook page? They major on the fact that several of the categories have improved...it feels a bit disingenuous really.....
They gave you 2013 and people assumed it would stay like that.
There was always a chance they would change. They had in the past.
To be fair, when I telephoned last year and asked if the GFA times for 2014 would be the same as 2013's, they should have said "There is a chance they could change" instead of "Yes".
Whenever I have phoned them I've always been left with a feeling that the person I was talking to wasn't sure of anything!
There are alternatives of course, but if running London is that important pick up a charity place.
Otherwise Paris is the same day, I believe!
When phoning London Marathon, the person you are speaking to will be the office person/receptionist. They will not be the one who will give you the answer. The answers will come from the management board who are responsible for the event. Cannot see why so many are fuss up because LM have change GFA times which they are allowed to do. If this was the other way round, they wouldn't be moaning.
If only The London Marathon wasn't the only marathon.
Can't see the fuss when runners have been misinformed by the VLM office and then put in months of hard work in a futile pursuit of a GFA placing?
Must be just me then.
Your case does though hinge on your assertion that you didn't run for the best possible time on the day but instead ran to just get inside what you believed to be the London GFA target. That may or may not be true for you individually, but in general there do seem to be an awful lot of people who think they could have easily knocked 2 or 3 minutes off their time if only they'd had that nugget of information.
I think that is actually true though about the pacing (to a certain extent). 26.2 miles is a long way, so a lot of people start with a target time in mind and try not to go too fast at the start because of the risk of blowing up later and not making their target. It seems to be a pretty common and sensible strategy to start at a steady pace only just ahead of target, and then see what you have left later in the race (18-20 miles) and speed up if you can. But once there's only 6 miles left, you're not going to shave 2-3 minutes off your time unless you speed up a hell of a lot. You'd need to have started out with a different pacing strategy in the first place.
Why not run in "futile pursuit" of a PB and then check the GFA rather than the other way round? You might never be back in the same physical condition again....ask Scott Overall or Phil Wicks (sorry guys).
You will then know that you could not have run any faster and won't be upset......GFA is surely a bonus not an end in itself?
What I don't get is why people say they "cruised the last 5miles" cos they knew they were ok for a GFA.....I run my heart out on every race and what will be will be...
I think playing russian roulette with an artificial time is a bit like Sergei Bubka just pushing up the pole vault record by 1cm at a time to cash in with his sponsor....
I realise I am rowing against the tide on this thread, but a counter-opinion never hurts - does it?
So what do I say to people who just missed out with the changes? Run again like I had to when I missed my GFA in VLM 2012 - my Garmin said I was 56 secs inside; the official time said I missed by about 2 mins. I won't bore you with the detail, but I put it right in an Autumn marathon and ended up being 5 min plus inside the GFA.
It's tough to take, but you'll be stronger next time........reaches for tin hat.
Well, since I'm in an agreeable mood I agree with this too - I was thinking of the very few people who went out aiming for 3:10, found they were in slightly better shape than they thought, and ended up with 3:06-ish. Those people might have taken a risk and started out aiming for 3:05 if they'd known. I've less sympathy with people who weren't really trying. Unless they were going all out for a sub-3 and only cruised the last few miles after it was clear they weren't going to make it.
Turn to religion?
I trained to run sub-3:10, but on the day ran as hard as I could. I managed to maintain 3hour pace until mile 23, when I was exhausted and started to slow down rapidly. Finish time 3:01:32 and the satisfaction that I couldn't have run a second faster. I was done-in for about 4 weeks after.
It is a running race, isn't it?
My point is: If you phone the official VLM helpline number, you should be given facts, not misinformed.
You should, no dispute there. Obviously not a futile pursuit of a GFA time, well done. I thought from your earlier post that you ran for 3:10 and ended up over 3:05.
Whoever answers the phone is not going to have the answer. If the person cannot answer, they will say don't know. If they say there going to be changes, they will say there going to be changes. Thats not being misinformed, thats what they going to tell you. They are not going to giveaway secret information to help runners. Again, the decision comes from the management board who are ones who agreed to it and the ones who went ahead. Their decision because its their event. If they said there could be changes, then word will spread like fire and everyone will change their plans just to get their guarantee place next year because we all love to run the London Marathon.
I know lots of people who are committed to running but just don't have enough natural talent to run inside the GFA times. Hence, they enter the ballot and whenever they get in they take it as a bonus. If they don't get in they go and run somewhere else, experience different cultures and take whatever they can from the experience.
I hope that those unfortunate few hundred affected are given some grace but if not move on. There are lots of other opportunities to enjoy the sport.
From what I gather, only 103 out of 2,282 men and 209 out of 1,586 women have lost out because of GFA changes. To LM, its peanuts.
But My hubby has been a winner.he had a mnightmare london this year but had a good race last april in wales........the changes mean his race last year gets him a GFA.......
makes up for having such a crap marathon this year
so not doom and gloom
one, has people forgot this is a major event and some people are running to collect all the majors?
two, those numbers runnerman has picked up is only for people whom has run london this year, think about uk as a whole! I am sure there are women and men affected.
three, being a major, you expect better organisation than this!
You were miss informed by some one paid to answer the phone....
get over it
One, there are lots of ways into the LM and entry into that one isn't going to be the biggest challenge to anyoen trying to complete all 6 majors.
Two, yes there'll be others at other marathons but small numbers compared with those at London.
Three, lets have some perspective. This is the organisation that puts on a race for 35,000 people in a major city, with road closures, security, ambulance cover, media etc etc to sort out. The fact that someone on the phone said that the GFA times would be unchanged is a pretty insignificant part of that. I doubt very much that in the days immediately before and after the race itself anyone in the VLM organisation had GFA times particularly high on their radar. Why would they?
Dave Ex-Spartan, it's a discussion. I wasn't the only person to phone up and ask that question and receive the same reply. Some people have good reason to feel let down by VLM's admin.
Personally, I couldn't really give a monkey's. I would like to run London next year, and have a qualifying GFA time, but as others have said "there are other marathons"
I just want to run a sub-3 one day
..anywhere!
Is "Cheerful" Dave an ironic pseudonym?
if someone can afford to run all the makors then they can afford to buy a charity place for London.......
£2000 for a charity place would still make it cheaper probably than a holiday in America or japan
Like I said you have your GFA for London so go and run your sub 3.....
i was so interested in it this year I forgot it was on til I saw the TV news in the evening
seren, this is out of principle! if that is the case then whats the point of having a ballot or gfa? might as well make lm a charity race!
Though you're quite keen to discuss it here..
No as you pointed out you have a GFA, and I couldn't give a toss, so not much to discuss....
unless you have any ideas what to have for tea this evening