When you're watching the VLM on TV this year, will you be slightly bitter?

I shalln't be bitter and twisted, have tried and failed to get into London a few times so I ain't going to bother no more! I will watch from the comfort of my sofa, having done the Brighton Marathon the week previously. Though having been up to London and watched the marathon a few times there is no atmosphere like it. Good luck to all runners who are doing a marathon this year!    

No I've done it twice before and it was a bit crap to be honest. Nice to part of something big, but too many people, too much noise, I much prefered every other marathon i've done.

Besides this year i'm running Rome...

London, dirty, smelly, cold and ugly, or Rome... No comparison really.

I'm running Rome too, totally agree no comparison! and also running Llanelli, Rivington, Liverpool, Chester, York, Blackpool, Manchester, Loch ness, Rutland, North Downs, the Wall and more, I'm the "couldn't give a flying fuck" camp on London, as most people seem to be.

Running Manlet wrote (see)

Haven't you made this thread before?  You sound like a 10 year old girl crying because the my little pony she got for Christmas was purple instead of pink.

Do you get upset when your lottery numbers don't come up as well, as you are clearly a special snowflake more deserving than anyone else?

If you get "bitter" over something like this I would really hate to be around you when you come accross something really challenging in life.

Perhaps if I had wrapped my comment in the little known and rarely used <tongue-in-cheek> tags, the thrust of what I was posting may have come across a little better.

With everything I write, you need to take it with a liberal dash of salt ....... basically when I post I tend to do a 33/33/33 split ...... that means that 33% of my message is what I mean and has a purpose ..... 33% of the message is posted in such a way as to ellicit a response (even if that means writing in a way I know will provoke) ....... and the other 33% of what I write is just there to see if I can extract a laugh or two .....

Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

Salt is bad for you, a liberal dash will fur up your arteries

Thats OK, all the coke I drink should flush it out of my system anyway.

To go back to the original question - I wouldn't be bitter as I don't want to do a marathon.  But if I did:

1. do something other than London - I noticed that you can get a charity place for Brighton and raise £400 which seems fairly manageable compared with the £2K etc you have to raise for London.  And of course there are loads of other marathons that you can do without needing a charity place and which are probably nicer than London.  For example Jersey, Guernsey, Edinburgh, Manchester to name but a few.

2. volunteer - get into the volunteer ballot which gives you a really high chance of a place for the 2014 London marathon.  I think everyone I know who volunteered last year who wanted a place this year has got one.

DF3.  Let it go now.

Life's too short.

Millsy1977 wrote (see)

David, if you were the Race Director for 2014 how would you sort out the entry system?

1) I would question if we couldn't increase the total numbers ...... is this due to 'elf and safety issues?'

2) Not open the ballot so soon after the marathon. I would wait several weeks and then open it for more than just a day. The reason being, having the ballot open up so soon after the running of the event, you get to many 'Oh I must do that next year' people who by the time 2014 rolls around, they are too busy tucking into their swiss rolls to worry about what day their slow long run is.

3) Have certain marathons through the year be 'recognised' by VLM. If you enter at least one one of these and complete it, in this day and age of chip timing and spreadsheets, you are given priority (say you get twice or even 5 times as many shots in the ballot than if an average joe had applied who had never run in a marathon) ..... when you apply, you tick a box saying 'yes I have run in a recognised marathon this year', then a simple program cross references your application details with those of the marathon you claimed to have run (remember we live in 2013, we don't need some old guy manually cross checking pieces of paper ..... this would all be fairly automatic). If it doesnt check out, your ballot application is immediatly discarded, so if you try to cheat you'll have no chance at all. Also by having 'certain' marathons be eligible it would enhance those marathons as well as people think 'Well if I run this marathon it gives me an extra chance to get into the London one.'

4) Stop pandering to the politically correct audience with these 'good for age' qualification times ......... look at the different categories for men and the tight times, versus the pretty much 'any woman who can post a half decent time can get a GFA'. Sorry I know some of the women on here will bristle at the slight to their gender, but its kinda true .......

4) No no, it's okay, I'm delighted to be a woman and get to run the VLM whenever I like.

David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

Millsy1977 wrote (see)

David, if you were the Race Director for 2014 how would you sort out the entry system?

1) I would question if we couldn't increase the total numbers ...... is this due to 'elf and safety issues?'

2) Not open the ballot so soon after the marathon. I would wait several weeks and then open it for more than just a day. The reason being, having the ballot open up so soon after the running of the event, you get to many 'Oh I must do that next year' people who by the time 2014 rolls around, they are too busy tucking into their swiss rolls to worry about what day their slow long run is.

3) Have certain marathons through the year be 'recognised' by VLM. If you enter at least one one of these and complete it, in this day and age of chip timing and spreadsheets, you are given priority (say you get twice or even 5 times as many shots in the ballot than if an average joe had applied who had never run in a marathon) ..... when you apply, you tick a box saying 'yes I have run in a recognised marathon this year', then a simple program cross references your application details with those of the marathon you claimed to have run (remember we live in 2013, we don't need some old guy manually cross checking pieces of paper ..... this would all be fairly automatic). If it doesnt check out, your ballot application is immediatly discarded, so if you try to cheat you'll have no chance at all. Also by having 'certain' marathons be eligible it would enhance those marathons as well as people think 'Well if I run this marathon it gives me an extra chance to get into the London one.'

4) Stop pandering to the politically correct audience with these 'good for age' qualification times ......... look at the different categories for men and the tight times, versus the pretty much 'any woman who can post a half decent time can get a GFA'. Sorry I know some of the women on here will bristle at the slight to their gender, but its kinda true .......

 

Clueless. 

Even if you only meant 33% of this post that means you are still 33% clueless.

/slowclap

After doing it twice for charities in 1990& 94, I thought I'd finally do another now I'm so much older I can't remember how bad I felt afterwards. I've been turned down four times in a row now despite being in the ballot of 160,000 for supposedly 40,000 places, so bugger 'em I don't think I'll bother anymore. It used to be the people's race, now it''s the race for people's (charities) cash. Going up to watch though, the atmosphere is still great, I'll have a few jealous moments but I'll get over them.

i do agree with the waiting to open the ballot though, i can think of at least 5 people i know who entered the ballot in the past 2 years afer watching it and getting the "i'll do that...yes!" none of which ever did a single run, not one, only one of them got a ballot place but again it went to waste as she never trained for it and didnt go, i think she even forgot when it was. 

There is nothing wrong with people being inspired by the race, i hope everyone gets inspired to go out there and run, but turn up and run/walk run etc at least, the people who take a ballot place but have zero intentions of actually doing it are not being fair imo. 

David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

Salt is bad for you, a liberal dash will fur up your arteries

Thats OK, all the coke I drink should flush it out of my system anyway.

 

that answer did actually have me laughing 

Not sure about your ideas David..... That way any Tom, Dick or David could get in !

Not really, all my proposal would do is that those who have competed in a marathon before have a greater chance at the ballot. They may still lose out, but I think for instance if you competed in a marathon in the past 12 months, then you should get say 5 chances in the ballot and those who haven't should only get 1 chance. Sure the 1 chance could still come in, but it would give an incentive and an advantage to those who have actually put in some effort and weed out the 'Oh that looks cool on TV, I must do that one day, hang on let me put down my burger and coke so I can fill out the entry for next years race' people.

David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

 weed out the 'Oh that looks cool on TV, I must do that one day, hang on let me put down my burger and coke so I can fill out the entry for next years race' people.

 

but they are the ones that the marathon needs t atract.......you are already doing marathons and big enough and stroing enough to do one...we ned to encourage those who don't exercise.......

Well we may differ there seren ..... if the only way to get them off their fat a..es to do anything is to promise that they'll get to run on closed off streets in one of the worlds biggest cities with throngs of people cheering and having the whole thing telecast live on BBC1 ........then they don't deserve a spot anyway (guess which political direction I lean in by the way LOL)