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TCS London Marathon 2024

50 watchers

TROSaracen Jul 2023 9:40am, 7 Jul 2023 26,780 posts	Quote Pin TROSaracen I got GFA with c5 minutes under in 2023. I seem to recall something like 3-4 minutes was the actual cut off.
larkim Jul 2023 9:42am, 7 Jul 2023 21,475 posts	Quote Pin larkim Even if the fetchies were a sample of 50, where you'd statistically expect 2 entries, it's equally not statistically that unlikely that a cluster of individuals randomly selected gets just 1 in 50 when there are 500,000 participants. Though agree - not rich pickings for Fetchies. Last year the cut off was about 4 minutes I think for GFA. I'm feeling a bit bad that I should be pretty much dead cert to get GFA yet got a ballot place, which effectively means someone else missed out. But then again, with only 3000 male spots in GFA I've freed up a spot there too if I take up the ballot place. I've pinged TCS LM with a question about whether there is any point in converting my place to a GFA when the GFA window opens, but doubt that's really a "thing". The ballot place, I think, comes with a 1 year deferral option whereas GFA is a one-shot option. So even though it would cost £140 to grab this year's place and then defer, it makes most sense as a contingency and it would mean I get a different experience next year starting from a "masses" pen rather than the GFA slot on red that I had this year.
EvilPixie Jul 2023 9:58am, 7 Jul 2023 44,595 posts	Quote Pin EvilPixie don't forget we hopefully have a club place up for grabs - not sure when that would be? fetcheveryone would that be soon or October?! I'm going to optimistically read one of the first running books I read - I was recommended it by a fellow runner on the train home from the Hydro Active 5K (I let Paula Radcliffe win that day) which was my first experience of a big event
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Jul 2023 10:48am, 7 Jul 2023 50,259 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ My last London appearance in 2012 seems to get further away every year! Interesting that I received a Leeds Marathon email yesterday and an Edinburgh Marathon email today - they must pick up quite a few entries from runners who missed out in the ballot.
Roberto Jul 2023 10:55am, 7 Jul 2023 2,359 posts	Quote Pin Roberto I’m just debating signing up for Edinburgh. Got it in my head I want to do a marathon next spring but can’t decide to go for an earlier one (March) or Edinburgh at end of may.
ptr_rnr Jul 2023 10:55am, 7 Jul 2023 1,491 posts	Quote Pin ptr_rnr This is my tenth (or 11th maybe) rejection and it's hard to not get a little annoyed. But equally, it's hard to think of a better way of doing it. I wonder if there could be an accrual system, where if you've had X number of rejections without an acceptance, you get an extra name in the hat. This could be 3 consecutive rejections = an extra ballot spot for example. It could then be recurring, so for 6 rejections you'd get 3 ballot entries, 9 rejections = 4 entries. This way, the more you've been rejected, the more likely you are to get a spot, but you don't end up with 400,000 guaranteed entires, as pointed out in that Runners World article. I'd also then have it reset when you get an acceptance, and the following year you'd be back down to 1.
EvilPixie Jul 2023 10:59am, 7 Jul 2023 44,599 posts	Quote Pin EvilPixie in the old days it used to be 5 No's in a row and you were in but then you had to go to a shop for a magazine and enter with pen and paper and a cheque so a lot less entrants I've entered every year but 1 since the 2003 race and had 1 ballot place
Fizz :-) Jul 2023 11:26am, 7 Jul 2023 8,060 posts	Quote Pin Fizz :-) Even if all the places were ballot, with 500k+ entries it’s a one in ten chance at best, sadly. But the law of big numbers means that the occasional person will report getting in two or three times on the trot.
Windsor Wool Jul 2023 11:49am, 7 Jul 2023 5,978 posts	Quote Pin Windsor Wool Congratulations to everyone who has a place! (I didn't enter the ballot as I think running 26 miles is mad ) There is an an article on Runners World which I found really irritating, not least because I know the person who wrote it automatically gets a place every year on GFA. Now I know you can say she trains hard etc, and no doubt she does, but she also has natural talent, which she doesn't acknowledge. runnersworld.com Honestly, there is nothing automatic about getting a GFA entry each year. Just a lot of hard work and application. Even those with natural talent have to avoid injury etc. Now, I’m convinced that there is a group of people that couldn’t get a GFA even if they trained hard but I’m also convinced that there is a decent percentage of those who moan about not getting a ballot place who could achieve a GFA with the right level of application. It took me several years to get to the necessary standard. This is way too long for most in society nowadays, unfortunately.
larkim Jul 2023 12:17pm, 7 Jul 2023 21,476 posts	Quote Pin larkim Oof, throw a bomb into the discussion there WW I think the reality is that for Fetchies generally we know where we are in relation to GFA and our capabilities. And there are some people for whom GFA is a walk in the park (so I have some sympathy with the "automatically gets a place" comment as there are (mainly women, due to the correctly softer standards when pitched against WAVA) some people for whom this comes easily). The numbers, sadly, do mean that a ballot for 20000 places out of 500000 entries results in a 1 in 25 years likelihood of success, and even then you could still be unlucky 50 times in a row without really disturbing the gods of maths and stats. Club places are too few though - increasing that would have an impact on "real runners" that I think could be justified (though recognising that not everyone is in a club). Our family has really benefitted from that, doubled up with the fact that my family is just about the only one in our local athletics club that is at all interested in distance running. But even for my 2nd claim club where we have about 130 members, the amount who need / want to get in via club place ballot still comes down to a 1 in 5 chance or thereabouts as most either a) are automatically in via champs or GFA or b) have no interest in running London anyway. I suspect the dynamics are different the closer the club is physically to London.