Who's waiting for the London Marathon ballot ?

24 watchers

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jamborigg Oct 2018 3:13pm, 5 Oct 2018 1,381 posts	0 jamborigg Yup entered once more. Never been successful but keep signing up. Had a GFA last year then they moved the goal posts 😡
Roberto Oct 2018 3:18pm, 5 Oct 2018 526 posts	0 Roberto They did that to me Jamborigg. I ran 3.08 when GFA was 3.10. On the night that I had run the time, they changed the target to 3.05 so I missed out. Completely demoralising after so much training.
♪♫ ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ ♪♫ Oct 2018 3:21pm, 5 Oct 2018 25,682 posts	0 ♪♫ ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ ♪♫ I've never been successful in the ballot, but have run London six times. Two GFA places, two gold bond charity places, one running club place and one (just before ADT took it over, so going back a bit!) when a colleague came round the office saying "Mars have given us some free entries for the London Marathon - who wants a place?". All of those routes seem far more straightforward than the ballot, which is a triumph of hype over useful process.
larkim Oct 2018 3:26pm, 5 Oct 2018 5,731 posts	0 larkim Beyond going down the route of GFA for all spots, what's the better / fairer way of allocating the places though than a ballot? At least a proper ballot properly administered (which Ihave no real doubts that it is) means it is literally luck of the draw - no preference for speed, previous running, club membership, charity focus, age, rapidity of entry etc. Most club places are allocated on some form of ballot anyway and whist I might harbour opinions that GFA times are achievable for more people than actually have them (and I include myself in that bracket given they stole my GFA from me with this year's changes ) the distribution of places at London actually seems quite fair overall.
Weath Oct 2018 3:55pm, 5 Oct 2018 150 posts	0 Weath I have no complaint with the general ballot in principle. My gripe is that it takes them so flaming long to get the thing drawn and the resulting knock-on effect it then has with looking to enter and arrange accommodation etc. for other maras if unsuccessful, obviously at a later time than ideal due to premium costs. I have a bullet in this years chamber but have already decided entered/prioritised running Brighton next year. It is likely to be my 5th or 6th unsuccessful attempt for London. I did (provisionally) get in last year through our club ballot but following the VLM's club places allocation reduction I ultimately missed out.
larkim Oct 2018 4:06pm, 5 Oct 2018 5,732 posts	0 larkim Yep, that's fair. It really really shouldn't take as long as it does to get the places allocated. I could run it off in a spreadsheet in about half an hour with appropriate levels of randomness.
♪♫ ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ ♪♫ Oct 2018 4:24pm, 5 Oct 2018 25,683 posts	0 ♪♫ ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ ♪♫ Agreed - the ballot seems necessary to deal with the gulf between supply and demand. Two gripes: firstly the long wait for results (Berlin 2019's ballot closes on 7 November and results are announced on 29 November) and secondly the seemingly scattergun approach to communicating results. To be honest, I shan't mind particularly if I don't get a place. As has been observed already, there are plenty of great marathons out there. I suppose, in my more reflective moments, I would say that its a good thing that they make it difficult for "people like me" (middle-aged male runners) to get a a place. I often say that anyone who is only going to run one marathon ought to do London just for the experience of it, so if I'm not in it, that's an opportunity for someone else!
Southcoastpete Oct 2018 4:26pm, 5 Oct 2018 5,700 posts	0 Southcoastpete Would be interesting to know how many ballot places there actually are. I guess it depends main/y on the number of charity places? I'm sure people will remember when you had to go hunting for the Marathon News mag, which has an entry form stapled inside. You completed it, and posted it off. I'm sure since the entry is now online, and "easier" you must get a lot more people applying?
larkim Oct 2018 4:41pm, 5 Oct 2018 5,734 posts	0 larkim Charity places are fairly fixed - the number of golden bond places is 5 per bond (presumably big charities have a fair few golden bond subscriptions) and the silver bond gives the bond holder one place every 5 years. So I doubt that number of places changes much each year. There is a separate charity ballot which allocates 1 place per charity to successful charities which don't already hold a bond, so I suppose they can flex that number but it won't be huge. This guardian article suggests there are 15000 charity places theguardian.com GFA places are now fixed at 6000. Then there's champs and elite (1500?). Various reports suggest about 17,500 places allocated in the ballot. 414,000 people have applied for those places, so there's a 4% chance of success - 25-1 on the horses! There are also overseas sales of places.
DocMoye Oct 2018 5:29pm, 5 Oct 2018 24,405 posts	0 DocMoye my gripe is that entry to the ballot is too easy so you get people gaining places who then say things like "well i wasnt really bothered, i dont know why i entered it"...