Preston Guild Marathon

Geeeez Simon! That sounds horrific!!! ...When you said baggage problems I was thinking of something like London, where they take your baggage and transport it to the finish line for you. Never heard of a marathon that effectively 'stores your stuff' at the start/finish! ...Will have to watch out for that one in future!

Update on the Guild 5K: Looks like if we want in on the day we have to now go on a waiting list! Click here to add your email address to the waiting list.

That'll teach us to hang fire to enter on the day when we're injured. Dammn, lol. Looks like it's going to be pot luck for us now.

I am still a bit confused by Alans comments of:

As for the 5k you can still enter but will have to join the junior race because the open one is full and it still counts for the series.

At first I thought he meant they would let you enter as a Senior but you would need to run in the Junior race. Being beaten by some youngsters wouldn't really bother me but not sure if this is what he meant. Probably not.

Anyway, added my name to waiting list.

Max, I was confused as well, as surely that's only for the 11-17 year olds??

Alan - Could you explain more? ...as it's the chance of getting the Guild Series medal that we lose if we don't get into this diddly little race.

Stopping entries at a 700 limit is fair enough as that's huge for a 5K park circuit, but I highly doubt 50% of the senior entrants will be doing the other 3 much bigger races later in the year, so it's a double blow for us Series folk if we can't get into this first one.

We might pay a big price here for saving coughing up to just enter on the day due to injuries.

Yes, it's Red Rose Runners that are organising it.  ...but just to be clear ....Are you saying that they've said it's ok for us to enter the Junior 5k on the day, despite us not being aged 11-17? 

Who has said that, exactly?

Does this mean that, in order to allow for more entries, in effect we are having two open 5k's, irrespective of our ages, one at 10am and one at 11am?

Hi Alan

Agree it is not a PBC cock up. If I have missed entry it is only down to me!

From your message I am still not sure if you are saying that seniors can enter the junior race. If we can that is great and I will be there early doors to get entry. If not, it will be a lie in. Cheers

Guild 5K Update:

Have just emailed John Shepherd (the Events Officer at Red Rose) to see if the above is correct so we could get some clarification from the organisers.  Haven't got a reply yet, but John Rogerson (Membership Secretary) was fast to email me this:

  "Hi Pete,
   No.
   You can apply to the Junior race only if you are between the ages of 11 and 17.
   It is correct that the Open race is full.  Over 150 on waiting list so far.
   Kind regards
   John Rogerson
   Membership Secretary for Red Rose Road Runners"

John Shepherd may yet have something to add.

The sad part here really is that out of the 700 open entrants for the Open 5k barely less than 20% of them will even be interested in doing the whole Guild Series, meaning that less than 150 Series Medals will even need to be made.

I would have liked to have seen a discount for entering the whole series in advance. That way they would have pre-known just how many Series Runners would be taking up places in next week's Open 5k, and then be able to allocate the remaining places up to the 700 limit to everyone else.

Yes, I know that each race is organised by a different organiser, but like I've erm, maybe hinted at before, the whole Preston Guild Theme for us runners seems to be completely lost somehow, and I can't get to the bottom of why. lol.

It's obvious now that the Guild Marathon has just become an ordinary marathon (as there's absolutely nothing Guild about it at all through our main town streets), and now the Guild Series Medal potential numbers have been severely restricted due to the fact that no system was set up to encourage Series entrants in the first place. Splitting monies gathered from pre-entered Guild Series runners would have been easy to redistribute back down to the relevant organiser too, so that wouldn't have been a problem.

I don't seem to be having a good Guild year so far do I! lol.  ...or shall I just treat is as 2012 and forget I'm a Prestoner born and bred. Hmm, maybe.

I did sugest that you ought to be able to enter all 4 in one go a few pages back!

They could then given us the same number for each event (maybe in a different colour to ordinary folk!) and banked the money. Plus several other marketing and financial possibilities. Another trick missed.

Glad I had the foresight not to eod for the 5K as I often do tbh. What are the limits for the other races?

I am new to this running game having just completed my first marathon at Manchester. (Must be a turning 40 thing) During the Manchester Expo I got given the information on the Preston Marathon and the other runs to make up the Guild series.  I clearly chose not to enter the Preston Marathon until I had completed my 1st but now I have was very keen on the race and the series as a whole as I live nearby in Chorley.  So I was disappointed to fail at the first hurdle. On the waiting list like the others. I just hope something can be arranged. I have no idea how these things work at this scale, but maybe have a second start 10 mins after the main start just so we can get a tick in the series book. I am not bothered about accurate times or anything like that.

With regards the Preston marathon, I am hoping to break the 3hr 50min mark (3.53.38 in manchester) So if anyone is training in the Whittle-le-Woods area who wants company on the long runs give us a shout. 

PS. If anyone can point me in the direction of any good training schedules for the 3hr 50 min time it would be much appreciated.

Cheers

It says `full` for the Mara on this tread banner- ?