My Forum

The '1 in 5' chance only correct when applied to the number of people entering the ballot compared to the numbers who get a place.

ie 25,000 places and 125,000 are in the ballot.

But I was led to believe that the draw is not done on a truly random basis - I am pretty sure they take age, sex and estimated finish time into account to try to ensure a 'balanced' field. What that means is that if you are unfortunate enough to fall into a heavily oversubscribed category e.g. V40 Male est. 3.45, then your changes are significantly less than 1 in 5.

Or is that just an urban myth?

I am pondering entering this year, as my first marathon, but not looking to commit until April/May time. But am a bit worried that the cancellation of the Liverpool Marathon and the fact that the race was voted the UK's fav might mean its a sell out before then.

Are my fears grounded?

Well, having taken part in the race for the first time yesterday, I can confirm that is not boring, definitely not flat, a wonderful location - and yes can just squeeze into a Large!

Opposite problem for me I'm afraid.

Seems that the races that offer the cotton t-shorts only ever do S/M/L - and unfortunately Large does not cut it yet.

For some races my goals are not finish position or race time - merely just to loose enough weight to fit into the T-Shirt 

I have done the Hanley one a couple of times now, and volunteered last week.

 As the previous poster stated it is a nett uphill - 2 and a half laps of Hanley park - I don't expect to post a blisteringly fast time on any course - so I am not too bothered.

This parkrun is still in its infancy (less than 10 runs so far), and the numbers, whilst still low compared with some of the more established runs, and steadily building. There is a reasonable mixture of club runners, students and parents running with their children.

I have not been to any other parkruns, so do not have anything to compare to, but the welcome is warm and as a non-runner the race director Tommy Hill is doing a great job!