London Marathon - club places

1 lurker | 18 watchers
Nov 2017
1:08pm, 17 Nov 2017
3,329 posts
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larkim
Yes, the form does. But the main page doesn't.

We've got a few athletes that will turn 18 before race day, which might nudge us above the ten threshold, but as they're not 18 today they get excluded I think.

The bloke that we allocated the place to will be well peed off.
Nov 2017
1:26pm, 17 Nov 2017
120 posts
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Weath
Seething. Absolutely ****ing seething.

This is totally unacceptable so late in the day when the already prolonged procedure takes such a ridiculous amount of time anyway, effectively leaving you little time to sort out any arrangements for 2018.

I have 'won' a club entry place via our ballot, but as being 2nd out of the hat it means that I am now likely to miss out on those new ratios. The missus may also be in a similar situation as she got in in similar fashion from her club also.

£££'s down the drain on the hotel and we've also now passed up the chance of running Brighton instead.
Nov 2017
1:50pm, 17 Nov 2017
3,330 posts
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larkim
Having made an effort to put in place a ballot this year to get our sole place allocated, I'm now quite embarrassed to have to tell the club member, who applies every year through the ballot and trains the kids in our club twice a week rain or shine, that he won't be getting his place. I sincerely hope he hasn't made bookings etc.

If EA hadn't published that doc, and maintained on their "Secretaries Portal" the fact that we were still entitled to a place, I wouldn't have given him such confidence that the place was his.

A real kick in the teeth.

Fine, change the rules early in the process. But not this late in the day, and not for the group of people who are the lifeblood of the sport.

Grr!!!!!!!
Nov 2017
3:55pm, 17 Nov 2017
6,107 posts
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The_Saint
We need to mobilise those Fetchforks in a boycott
Nov 2017
4:07pm, 17 Nov 2017
20,422 posts
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LazyDaisy
That is really, really poor by EA (or British Athletics) and VLM. Our club is unaffected as we have over 400 members and no juniors but in the circs described by Weath and Larkim I would be *furious* at being so misled.
Nov 2017
4:21pm, 17 Nov 2017
6,108 posts
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The_Saint
We recently got over the 100 members and did our club draw based on 2 places. Still at least the muppets running in fancy dress are unaffected.
Nov 2017
4:56pm, 17 Nov 2017
3,331 posts
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larkim
I've written to VLM and complained, mainly on the basis that if they'd said a couple of months ago that the numbers were under review people wouldn't have got ahead of themselves by trying to allocate specific numbers of places. Even just a casual phrase along the lines of "we'll be confirming the allocation ratios in due course" would have put up a flag that they were being reviewed in detail.

With 163,000 England Athletics registered members (2016 numbers) and 1,700 clubs the max club allocation would have been 6,800 (4x per club) and with an average club size of just 95 athletes (which must include a substantial number of youths who don't count towards the allocation size) the real allocation for English club members must be significantly smaller than that - I'd be surprised if it exceeded 2000 places overall, over which a decent number would pull out before race day and a chunk wouldn't get picked up either.
Nov 2017
5:35pm, 17 Nov 2017
6,109 posts
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The_Saint
Yup, they could accommodate it from the many thousands who get in only to impress their mates on Fakebook, don't train, pull a muscle and defer or give the place to someone else.
Nov 2017
5:37pm, 17 Nov 2017
11,428 posts
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Autumnleaves
When you put the numbers like that it looks really poor :(
Nov 2017
1:40pm, 20 Nov 2017
121 posts
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Weath
It has now been confirmed that I have lost my place.

From the club allocation 'pool' there will still be the unaffected uptake and also numerically some membership numbers won't see any impact in places lost. Therefore should Larkim's figures be vaguely accurate then I would estimate there is going to be at max 500 other people in the same boat as myself – relative peanuts - probably why I have seen absolutely no comment on this elsewhere than here!

I think we can all agree that Virgin's attitude to clubs stinks. I have contacted EA to see if they have any comment, but so far not a peep.

Why-oh-why can't the club allocation (no matter what that number may be) be decided upon right at the start of the registration process in April, they can then tailor the public ballot numbers accordingly to prevent this kick in the teeth happening?

It just feels like those more dedicated runners, who are more likely to be planning well ahead to future events, are having to continually put their plans on hold / miss out on other opportunities while Virgin faff about.

About This Thread

Maintained by Old Croc
A quick question from a friend's club.

What's your club's policy ref the allocatio...

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  • events
  • london
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