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TCS London Marathon 2024

50 watchers

larkim Apr 2024 7:38am, 3 Apr 2024 23,621 posts	0 larkim Yes, completely agree ks.
Shades Apr 2024 8:09am, 3 Apr 2024 2,138 posts	0 Shades Plenty time though to run another marathon, qualifying period doesn't end until 30/09/24.
KinkyS Apr 2024 8:52am, 3 Apr 2024 18,277 posts	0 KinkyS Most people can only target one or two marathons a year for a racing/GFA effort though and Sep cut off rules out most of the big Autumn marathons.
Big_G Apr 2024 9:11am, 3 Apr 2024 3,333 posts	0 Big_G KinkyS, is that still true do you reckon? Not talking about the tightening of the times, but loads of people I know run multiple marathons a year, and qualify in more than a couple a year. I think it’s easier to do now with the super shoes and improved recovery, but personally I think the times when people can target only one or two a year are long gone. Personal time considerations or other things have an impact, but in terms of gearing up for a fast time, I don’t think it’s limited to one or two a year. Even elites are doing more - look at Phil Sesemann where he missed out in Valencia in December, but hit the qualifying time for Olympics in February in Seville just over 2 months later. But, yes, the timing of the cut off for qualifying does miss a lot of fast races, Chicago (the current men’s WR course) being one.
Shades Apr 2024 9:26am, 3 Apr 2024 2,139 posts	0 Shades I think it's better that they've tightened up the GFA times rather than have runners apply thinking they are well within the GFA time only to be rejected as not fast enough. Ridiculous situation at NYC where some runners were 30 minutes inside the GFA time and were rejected. I agree with Big G, the days of one or two marathons a year are long gone. I've only ever run two GFA qualifying times and I ran them 4 weeks apart. One before the end of September cut off and one after so qualifying me for 2 years London Marathons.
Velociraptor Apr 2024 9:28am, 3 Apr 2024 68,418 posts	0 Velociraptor Some people have sufficient marathon running talent for the GFA time to be achievable with the sort of training than they can sustain all year round without burning out, some will never be able to run a GFA time no matter how meticulous their preparation is, and some, of whom I am one, can run a GFA time occasionally but not twice in one year; I need everything to go well and I'll typically only come into that sort of form once every few years. This isn't a complaint. If I'm not that good in comparison with my peers, that's personally disappointing but it's a reasonable objective assessment. Another aspect of it is that having run a GFA time one season I'm likely to be off the boil by the time I get to use it, as happened in 2022/2023.
Big_G Apr 2024 9:40am, 3 Apr 2024 3,335 posts	0 Big_G By the way, what I said above wasn’t about me. I’ve only ever qualified once, and that was just by a few seconds for 2023s race! But from what I see from club mates from my 3 clubs, 4 or 5 fast efforts a year is not that unusual, and some do more than that.
Shades Apr 2024 9:46am, 3 Apr 2024 2,140 posts	0 Shades I'm a slow runner and the only time I was able to achieve GFA times was when a generous 30 minutes was added as I moved up an age group. Before that I was never even close to achieving a GFA time. Incidentally, I never used my GFA times to run London, I just wanted to see if I could do it. London is not a marathon I want to run again.
auburnette Apr 2024 9:50am, 3 Apr 2024 2,278 posts	0 auburnette Personally I think more than 2 or so marathons a year raced all out is a recipe for burnout (both physical and mental) unless you're either unusually talented or unusually fond of running marathons, or both. It doesn't leave any time for focusing properly on speed. People can get away with it but there's also loads of people who will end up stepping away from running, getting injured, or never quite performing at their best as a result.
Big_G Apr 2024 10:05am, 3 Apr 2024 3,337 posts	0 Big_G I suppose what works well for one person can be seen as a recipe for disaster for another. We are all different, I guess.