London Marathonm

+1 for Paris

I bequeathed my entry fee, just for the extra slither of a chance.  Should I assume that's why I haven't heard anything either way when other people have?

And if so, I guess my odds have just gone from poor to very poor, depending on how many other people bequeathed?

my 4th reject nd believe everyone sould get one reject letter before getting in and they should only ever be allowed get a ballot place once. if want do it again then do for charity to give others a chance. Iv read someone who did it twice through ballot last year which so unfair but iv got vlm blues at the min.

I got in on my first attempt, I must be pretty lucky! It's going to be my first marathon so I'm looking forwards to it!

lisa if people really want to do it they can train and get a guaranteed GFA place........

life has luck somedays.....

you don't say that anyone who has had a job for 109 years must give it up for those on the dole  as they have already been lucky to get a job and now they can have their turn on the dole..........

its just a marathon

But Millsy, the point is that if people who had got a ballot place weren't allowed another, then there wouldn't be 125,000 people with valid ballot applications.

Lisa's suggestion that everyone should get one rejection doesn't seem quite right - it means first timers would have to apply knowing they would be rejected, so they could have a valid chance in a year's time which is a bit odd.

But I agree with her point.  As it stands, someone who has got a ballot place and run every year for the last five years has the same chance as someone who has applied for five years but has never got a place.  It keeps things simple and it's transparent, but it could be fairer.

I appreciate they can't guarantee a place after "x" tries, like they used to, but they could improve your odds based on how many failed tries you had, or reduce your chances if you had previously been successful.  Not saying no-one should get to run twice, but more serious runners can either try for GFA or join a club?  You do have to appreciate some people will never be able to get GFA - depends if you want to restrict entry to fast runners and (very) charitable people, or allow other people a crack.

I got a reject magazine but I'm doing the Brighton marathon ( I entered it before I ran the London marathon this year ) I did London for charity last year and thankfully it was a smaller charity and only had to raise £1500 and did most of it online but its still hard work

I've heard there is a Milton Keynes Marathon

There is also Shakespeare Marathon ( Stratford upon Avon ) but beware as it got cancelled this year due to the bad weather conditions and they didnt tell people til they had lined up on the start line and even then only people at the front heard and people at the back didnt actually know  until they had got half way round that they had cancelled it and just reduced it to half a marathon, it was the right call as the weather conditions were awful ( and there was major flooding on a disused railway track ) but if you have trained for a marathon and its cancelled it was gutting, and the organisation turned into abit of a fiasco!!!!

Liverbird never heard of the 2nd chance bequeathing places before is that a new thing

Banksey88 when flora sponsored it they did the 5 rejects and your in next time but virgin dont do that

I've no idea really how they decide whether it is really just names in a hat and the pull them out sort of thing

ben there since at least 2005 when i first applied.just another way to get people to pay £30 for a poxy rain jacket or fleece.that tells everyone you are a loser

im not saying for them to actually get in 2nd time but at least have the experience of rejection letter the first time they apply. I prefer flora way i missed out on that by a year. At least then you would know you will run one day but the way it is at the min you could enter every year for rest of your life and never get a place.

As annoying as it can be to get constantly rejected there any many great marathons out there that you can enter if your goal is to run a marathon, rather than to run the marathon that's on the telly every year which let's be honest is why London gets the volume of entries it does each year. In the same way the GNR and the likes of the BUPA Manchester 10km get inundated with entries too. If those events where dropped off mainstream TV coverage in the UK and the entry levels would drop to match other similar events.

Also depending on where in the UK you are it can be just as cheap to do other races, even abroad. It costs me pretty much the same to run in Amsterdam, Paris or Berlin in terms of hotels, travel etc from Glasgow that it does to do London. Obviously if London is your local marathon that's not going be the case.

I'll have a guaranteed slot for London in 2014, but it's interesting as these last five years have passed by and now that I've ran so many other marathons (will be doing my 9th in Chicago next week) that the appeal of London has actually been diminishing each year.  A few years ago I'd get annoyed when I that rejection magazine dropped through the door, now I'm pretty much meh about it.

I got a place this year after having a rejection last year.

If people are after an alternative marathon to run I would certainly recommend Paris, I ran this last year as my first marathon enjoyed it so much that I then went on and booked up for Munich marathon 6 months later in October. You need to be quick though to enter Paris.

Seren is right. The second chance ballot has been there for a good few years but I never got lucky. In fact, I think there's only one person I ever heard of who WAS.

Millsy1977 wrote (see)

Stratford on Avon is in April supposed to be a decent one.

Another vote for Stratford, but a word of caution. As it's a "mop up the rejects for London" marathon it DOES have a cut off. You have to get to 11.84 miles by 2h 25 or you are ushered to the half marathon finish line and they are strict on this. I know people who haven't made the cut off. And the full cut off is six hours I think? This is to stop people who "quite fancied London but didn't give it enough serious thought regards training" from entering THEIR race.

i did it yesterday. it was a new course and ran between 2-215 time marker. it was bottle neck and loads of islands of diffrent sizes to run round. you spent a lot of time trying get round people all the way to the end. its my local so will do it again

Hi.  This is a repeat of what Paul Penney said.  Everyone seems to be either celebrating or getting over their disappointment, but I still haven't heard anything which is rather frustrating.  I'm kind of assuming I'm not in, but if so it would be useful to know so I can get on with other plans.

I did do the bequeathal thing to try and maximise my chances.  Could that explain the delay?  Are many other people still waiting to find out?