I'm going to ask a very open question to try to get as much information as possible:
How would you go about trying to get a place in the London Marathon for 2015?
All help / advice is welcome, thanks.
Enter another marathon earlier and run it really fast
Thanks Pieface. So if I can get a PB of about 2 hrs 10 mins I should be straight in!
Look at the good for age numbers, (a little easier than 2:10):
Age 18 - 40 sub 3:05
Age 41 - 49 sub 3:15
Age 50 -59 sub 3:20
Age 60 - 64 sub 3:45
Age 65 - 69 sub 4:00
The ballot opens on the 22nd of this month if you want to just take the chance.
The running club I'm a member of gets allocated places, they hold a draw for members who got the rejection letter and I think have been a member for at least 'X' number of months. A local charity also gives us 2 places in thanks for the donation we give from our annual 10k.
I will be entering the ballot (yet to do a marathon, only a few halfs) and see my club ballot as a 2nd chance.
Personally I'd rather stick with these 2 options than have the pressure to raise a few thousand for charity then find myself injured last minute etc then withdraw and feel I've taken sponsorship for something I haven't done.
I'm certainly leaning more torwards the ballot option than getting a place through a charity. How do I enter the ballot and when do you find out if you have a place?
As for getting in on time, my grandad did it 7 times between 1982 and 1990. His PB was 2hrs 57 mins in 1982 aged 45. As good as it would be to compete with that I'm a long way off and would initially aim for sub 4 hours, depending on training I'd revise that down accordingly. I reckon if I did it tomorrow without any specific training I could do it in about 4 hrs 45mins.
Assuming you don't want a charity place,
As mentioned above, join a running club - this gives you a second chance to get in.
Possibly put down an estimated time of 8 hours on the entry form. There's a theory that they allocate a given number of places for a given estimated time. If so, putting a time around 3:30->4:30 hours is going to make it unlikely you'll get in. The down side of such a ploy, is that you've got a lot of overtaking to do.
22 april is when the ballot opens.
I got a place 1st time in 2001 (not knowing how hard it was to get one. Then didn't run it)
got a place last year through Mountain Rescue. Had to defer.
ran it last Sunday. Blimmin' ace experience.
doing the Snowdonia marathon in October and also going to try for a ballot place in London next year to try and beat my slow 4hr 55
The big charities want a lot of money for a place, if you have a cause you personally support then speak to them and they may have a much more reasonable fundraising target.