Looking forward to it. Only three months to go.
For those that did it last year, how did you get to the start if you didn't have a hotel in the very near vicinity?
I live about 35 miles from the start but the off time is very early and we have small children at home so I'm thinking if we go for a drop off we will need a baby sitter.
I stayed with a friend in Wimbledon who kindly drove me up and dropped me at Jamaica Road, had a nice easy 15-min spin from there to the start area following hundreds of other riders.
The start itself was impressively well-organised with plenty of room for milling around and a dozen or so big holding pens for assembling the different start-time batches. When your pen was released you rolled round the corner to the actual startline and then let go at the designated time. Oddly the official timing didn't actually start until another half mile or so down the road - quite a few people were going over the startline then pulling over soon after to wait for mates etc.
One side-benefit of the start system was the batch letters on the dossards which meant you could easily keep track of where you were in the stream vs. earlier/later starters.
It was a great event and one of my highlights of last year, enjoy it.
Thanks for this response greatly appreciated. Need to also figure out how to get home afterwards! I could ride but I might be a little tired!
I haven't figured out the approach yet (hopefully friends nearby) but for the return I was thinking about rolling down to Vauxhall and jumping on a train - am guessing/hoping they'll be quite bike friendly that weekend
There will be car parks near the Olympic park and a free river bus service back to the east for the people coming from the east and north of London.
I found that its quite a slog to find your way out of St James park afterwards due to road closures, not much fun walking after 100 miles.
I just got the train back from Waterloo to Guildford over 16 bikes in our part of the train mid afternoon
After the finish you spill out into Green park which had plenty of coffee stands etc. if you need to arrange a meet-up for transport or with your riding mates. I spent a couple of hours there [s]lolling around in the sunshine eating ice cream[/s] err... performing a scientific post-ride recovery routine before I spun back down to Wimbledon (rather slowly).
After shower & food etc we made it back out again in time to see the pro race come up Wimbledon Hill which was a bonus - I think the relative timings may be different this year though.
Good suggestions and insight thanks again.
Like the idea of getting the train to somewhere in the Surrey Hills and meeting the wife and kids with the car.
Booked a hotel in East London already, four miles from the start. Last year I stayed in the worst hovel in Stratford. You can try University Halls of Residence for cheap reasonable accommodation.
Watch out for the Twickenham Cycle Club Blue Train. We have managed to get [b]sixty [/b] entrants this year including individual, club team and charity riders - we are riding a team of eight for a small charity to try and recoup their massive entry fee losses.
One charity I spoke to last week will lose £6K on this event due to unfilled places. 😥
One charity I spoke to last week will lose £6K on this event due to unfilled places.
To be fair part of this is due to [s]greed[/s] unrealistic expectations on the part of the charities.
I'm guessing they pay something like £200 for a charity place (I think that's what charities pay for London Marathon places) however the stipulation that charity riders need to raise £2k minimum puts a lot of people off.
if they reduced it to something like £1200, I reckon they'd get a few more riders.
Does anybody know for sure how much the charities have to pay? I have seen some charity adverts saying you have to pay your entrance fee of £40 odd as well as raise a certain amount.
Edited to add that some charity places only need you to raise £300 odd.
I'm riding for BLISS and they want us to raise £500.
Asthma UK - who I rode for last year - emailed me asking to ride for them again.
They said a guaranteed place was £200 per head, which seems bonkers to me, when entry was only £50?
They still have places available, but you need to source £500 sponsorship money IIRC.
Charities paid London Marathon £175 per place plus an extra £125 for advertising, so a total of £300 per place. Last year places filled easily so the smaller charities invested a substantial sum in buying places. Many of the small charities I spoke to last week had a lot of places left over. Many of the charities had a minimum sum of £5-800. At least one (Whizz Kidz) relaxed all requirements last week and asked riders to raise whatever they can after paying the standard £50 entrance fee.
I asked our chosen charity, Hope for Children for a block booking to try and recoup some of their losses whilst entering as many club riders as possible (as a club we would not normally collect on behalf of charity, that's for individuals).
You will not be able to register any places now because entry closed on Friday. There are no refunds.