Why bequeath?

Found it! Oracle, perhaps you should read it again?

Oracle - you *are* at it again then!

It was interesting to read the comment earlier that the FLM would not be the same without the charideeee aspect. Well other marathons do perfectly well without the charities - e.g. New York, Chicago, Berlin etc, etc.

Neil

Not sure how Chicago or Berlin work, but I have done New York and from what i remember it is run by a family.

I don't think that any of them are huge money generators that the FLM is. It seems that their priority is one of media exposure, whether that be personal or corporate.

SS, not the 'family'?

Read Oracles analogy to Tescos direct with interest.

Don't do your shopping over the internet,
otherwise you'll end up with all the dented tins, and the mouldy produce that they've been itching to get shot of.
Also make sure you read the order form correctly.A friend of mine wanted 6 bananas so put '6' in the box - he didn't see the 'kg' after the box and ended up with 2 carrier bags worth.

Did it improve his running ? I don't know , but he swings through the trees like no-one else I know......

Not as in - "mess with me mess with my family."

I think it's run by the Ruddins(!?!) family and the winner wins the Ruddins trophy.

That's probably completely wrong, but im sure someone will come on and tell me who it is.

Where's Wolfy with her backing when you need her

Dustin - my first go at Tesco online I ordered a 2kg bag of pasta shells. A sack more like - we're still munching our way through it.

SS: I'm here! Well I have given you my views on this subject but I must say that I thought New York/Chicago were charity driven to so.....you learn sommat everyday!!!

Just to say that hard luck to anyone who didn't get in, as I see people are finding out today, keep your peckers up and keep up the training through the winter and above all keep positive!!!

Would be interested to know if Sass did get in after all?

Hey - Tesco have been v good with my shopping - no shoddy goods there. And if you ever have reason to query anything (like the wine you bought was corked) just e-mail them back and they refund you.

Much easier than shopping ! Plus you end up saving money as you don't slip those nice pack of 20 jammy donuts or magazines into your trolley as you whiz round.

And as for 2Kg of pasta shells - do they do smaller packs ? Carbo-loading rules !

The reason I still go to Tesco is to slip in the jammy donuts (and ginger cake and fudge and joosters and a kilo tub of haribo sour mix....)

Guess you'd have to if you have enough energy to want to run 1000 miles !

(My miles this year are only just over 500 - and that's after running the marathon)

Joosters are great - the pack seems almost bottomless. I can scoff all evening !

I love Jamaica Ginger Cake which they sell at Tesco...but that's for another thread isn't it?

I like going grocery shopping, coz I do shifts I can go in the day, no easier but more entertaining, dodging all the pensioners!
Hey this thread has wandered, as they do but where's Oracle gone, it was starting to look like a fun debate!

I'm tired of all the FLM talk. I just wanna run the darn thing !

Oh, and discuss cakes and sweets. Mmmmmm

I've decided to run carrying a banner: it's going to read "I'm running for Oracle".

Cakes and sweets? Anyone for stollen? I've got 6 pieces left now....?

Re Bequething and charity issue in general. Myself and a friend decided we wanted to run the FLM in 2003 and wanted to raise money for a small but (in our opinion) v. deserving autistic charity. The charity in question whilst doing very worthwhile work largely unfunded except for membership subs simply couldn't afford to purchase a couple of guaranteed places and neither my mate or me could afford the money up front on their behalf although we're absolutely certain we could have raised well over the £1500 each in return.

We entered via the ballot hoping that agianst the odds both of us would get in and we could raise money for this fantastic little organisation who badly need the funds. We both chose not to bequeath. My own reasons were that: I do give money to charity regularly and I just didn't see thsi as the most efficient way of making a donation. And to which charity would it go to anyway? I didn't want a "consolation" fleece if I didn't get in.

It's entirely up to each individual whether they want to bequeath or not and I wouldn't criticise anybody who did.

I do think Oracle has raised some very valid issues in his many postings but my main concern is that the FLM seems to have become a bit of an annual cash cow for the charity big guns who can afford to lash out on lots of guaranteed places. Do the math and you can see it is big returns for not much effort on their part. Very lucrative for the big household name charities but how do the have nots get a look in. We probably all have our favourite causes but perhaps there ought to be some sort of system by which small charities who cant afford it could be helped get up the ladder.

Perhaps the organisers of the FLM could allow smaller charities a "special rate"

Thanks for asking Wolfie

... no good news .... or bad either!

S@ss

Mr A, you're already running for the Anthony Nolan Trust.