London Marathon 2016 entry ballot changes?

[philcray]

I have a place in this year's London Marathon and I saw in the magazine they send you that they are changing the ballot for the 2016 race so it does not shut off after a certain number of entries (125,000 if I remember correctly) but stays open for five days or so.

This obviously makes it less stressful to get your name in the hat but also means that the chances of getting a place via the ballot will be extremely thin as there will probably be at least 3 or 4 times as many names in the draw.

I just wanted to check I have got this right or if anyone else has any info or thoughts?

Cheers

Phil

[anonymous-user]

It's so oversubscribed now, I think there should be 2 London marathons. One just for runners starting at 7 and finishing at 11:30 (if you take longer, you don't count as a finisher and get swept up by a broom wagon bus) and then one that starts at 12 for anyone else.

[The jiffle king]

As a previous volunteer at a drinks station (23.8 miles), 2 marathons would be incredibly hard work e.g you arrive around 8am and leave around 5pm with just 1 marathon, so having 2 would be a nightmare.
If you could stagger the start and have people putting down realistic times when they enter instead of being way too ambitious that would help, but the reality is that will never happen.

[272BHP]

Its a great event but a stupid race - unless you get near the front I guess.

I did it a few years ago and put a realistic finish time on the entry. I trained very hard for the race and then on the day found myself trying to do 7min miles in a sea of 'athletes' doing 9min+ miles. I had used up so much energy in the first 10 miles slaloming in and out of people that I never got anywhere near a respectable time.

If I do another one I will leave the stopwatch at home and just enjoy the atmosphere.

[lost in espace]

That was my experience of Paris 272BHP. Am hoping London will be better as I am starting with the good for age runners.

If anyone has a decent marathon time it is worth trying the good for age entry, cheap too!

[john2443]

lost in espace said:

Am hoping London will be better as I am starting with the good for age runners.

I'll be there as well (GFA enclosure) but volunteering not running

It's still a bit of a melee when the pens are opened, last year runners were split into two groups (a small 1 or 2 in the corner of the race number) and the 2s still try to get into the 1 pen and everyone fights to get to the front, but at least you're only among a few hundred not a few 10s of thousands!

[The jiffle king]

From the GFA start, it's not too bad in terms of pace, the only issue is that people want to go too quickly. I was running 6:17 pace and still ran the first mile in 6:05 as there were too many people going too quickly and then they started to tail off... Even from the GFA pen where they should know better.

The main race is still too congested and far too many people think they will run 3:30 or 3:45 when they really mean 4:20.