DFW running club mark 2!! ALL ARE WELCOME!!!

RichOneday_2

beer_tins wrote: »

It looks like the online ballot for VLM 2010 has closed!

https://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/ballot/uk/

Does anyone know if I can still send of a paper ballot and where I can get hold of a copy? Aaargh! Don't want to miss my chance, even if it is only 7-1...

Jeez!! Why does a ballot need to close after 3 days???

What difference does it make if theres 100,000 in the ballot or 1 million?

But no, Beer Tins, it looks like you've missed the boat on the ballot. But its only a 1:7 chance anyway.

Now maybe people will start to realise how ridiculous it is to let the charities have such a stranglehold on the biggest event in the country!:mad:

Ukevas

Its daft after just 3 days I argee what is even more silly is that we now all have to wait till october or what ever it is to find out....

Idiophreak

RichOneday wrote: »

Jeez!! Why does a ballot need to close after 3 days???

What difference does it make if theres 100,000 in the ballot or 1 million?

But no, Beer Tins, it looks like you've missed the boat on the ballot. But its only a 1:7 chance anyway.

Now maybe people will start to realise how ridiculous it is to let the charities have such a stranglehold on the biggest event in the country!:mad:

The whole thing's a little odd, really.

Don't know why they don't just do first come first served - I mean the way the website's been over the last few days, that's more or less random selection anyway

RichOneday_2

Ukevas wrote: »

Its daft after just 3 days I argee what is even more silly is that we now all have to wait till october or what ever it is to find out....

Yes, but you used to have to wait until xmas.

Again, it has been changed to accommodate the charities even more so. There is now a huge number of people, who after just 3 days, know they wont be getting a ballot place because they havent registered.

Those that have registered and get rejected know 2 months earlier than usual and will be thrust into the hands of the charities.

Quite frankly, it stinks!

If there was any inclination at all to preserve some element of fairness in the system (which there isn't btw) then the NY model would be adopted where you need to run a certain number of qualifying races (times irrelevant) over distances ranging from 5k to 1/2 marathon to at least show some level of basic fitness and some kind of medium term interest in the sport.

Ukevas

RichOneday wrote: »

Those that have registered and get rejected know 2 months earlier than usual and will be thrust into the hands of the charities.

Or off to Paris we all go

beer_tins

RichOneday wrote: »

Jeez!! Why does a ballot need to close after 3 days???

What difference does it make if theres 100,000 in the ballot or 1 million?

But no, Beer Tins, it looks like you've missed the boat on the ballot. But its only a 1:7 chance anyway.

Now maybe people will start to realise how ridiculous it is to let the charities have such a stranglehold on the biggest event in the country!:mad:

I wanted to enter today :sad:

You're so right about the charities. Two charities I would like to support are The British Heart Foundation and the RNIB, but they both want me to pledge £1500, plus pay an entry fee. My company promise to match any donations I get for this kind of thing, but it's still a very tall order! Has anyone managed to raise that much?!

One gripe I have with the whole charity entry system is that people have a limited amount of money they will give to charity. Remember the Tsunami appeal a few years back? Other charities suffered as a result. My point is that the £300 entry fee the charities pay for runner's places comes out of this overall "pot" of available charity money. Raising money through means that don't require the charity to pay means more money in the pockets of charities, rather than the London Marathon organisers. If they only allowed ballot entries, with people raising as much as they could for charity, they might make more money out of it overall.

Anyway, the Hamburg marathon was on the same day this year. Might go there instead for 2010, and raise what I can for charity. I'm very disappointed TBH.

beer_tins

Ukevas wrote: »

Or off to Paris we all go

J'adore Paris! I'd be up for that as well.

Ukevas

See Beer tins as one door shuts another one opens in this running lark

beer_tins

P.S. assuming 15,000 charity places at £300 a go, that's £4.5m in overal charity money paid in the U.K goes directly into the pockets of the organisers of the London marathon. Nice little earner.

RichOneday_2

They're complaining in a similar vein on Runner's World.

I'm sick of hearing this baloney about its all about raising money for good causes.

No, it isn't!!!!

If someone raises £1500 the published tables for the major charities show that only between £150 - £300 is available for the actual end cause. Out of that has to come the golden bond fee of £300.

So often there is no net revenue to the end cause anyway...all that has been achieved by raising the minimum figure is to keep some pen pushers in a job. And the charities dont even try to argue with this or defend their positions. Because they dont need to....they're sitting pretty and know there'll be another crowd of first timers around the next corner.....