Charity running

I have entered for the London Marathon, but how many places are guarenteed for The gold band runners, I would like to run for a certain charity but how do I know if they have been given places or how do I find out which charity organisations have been given places.

Hi Graeme

I'm no expert in the charity Golden Placement, but I think this is how it works.
Basically all charities can buy placements from the FLM at a certain cost.
Then when it comes around to December these charities offer places to those runners who failed through the ballot if you look through the latest RW you will find charities doing this already.
The only catch being that you will probably have to raise a substantial sum of money up to around £1500 for one of the bigger charities.
The best way to find out if Charities have placements is to give them a call, I did this one year and ran for a smaller charity who were great giving me support etc and the bond wasn't as high as bigger charities.
I hope this helps and Good Luck to everyone who's applied through the ballot !

Hi Graeme,

I hope to be running the FLM next year for Epilepsy Action, (www.epilepsy.org.uk - got to give them a plug!!)

Give your charity a ring and see what they say... there are also always ads in the running mags..

Think you can go either via public ballot or gold bond place. I am not really sure as I am a first time applicant, so it is all new to me. You do have to agree to raise a certain amount for golden bond places.

Good luck

Go-slow

ps - sorry if it is frowned upon to name your charity? I am not entirely sure if you should or not.

There are about 800 charities with Golden Bond places (possibly as many as 10,000 places between them)

Markie Boy is right and you usually do have to promise to raise a minimum amount to get a guaranteed places ranges from £800 to £2000 depending on the charity.

He's also right about giving them a call to find out - also Marathon News magazine has ads from some of the larger ones with places. Many of the charities listed on our site have Golden Bond places (although not all do).

Most charities will ask you to enter the ballot anyway before they allocate their places in December when the results of the ballot are out.

Don't forget to build one of our free sponsorship webpages though if your charity is signed up with us or you can help persuade them to sign up with us. It helps you to automatically reclaim 28% extra Gift Aid Tax too.

Good luck.