London Marathon 2014
Following on from the excitement of this year’s London Marathon and the excellent reports provided by John Tollitt and Pip Nichol, it is anticipated that the club will once again be allocated 3 places in the 2014 Virgin Money London Marathon. In the last two years places have been allocated via an open ballot to members who expressed an interest in running this iconic race.
For the 2014 ballot for club places a couple of changes are proposed.
1) Applications for TBH places will only be accepted from members who are unsuccessful in the Virgin London Marathon open ballot. Inclusion into the TBH ballot will require members to show proof of an unsuccessful application into the main ballot. The Ballot for places opens on 29th April 2013 and closes as soon as the organisers receive a specified number of applications circa 150,000, this is usually achieved within 24 hours of the ballot opening. Applicants will be notified in October by London Marathon if they are unsuccessful. The TBH ballot will take place as soon as possible after this. Members who are successful in the TBH ballot will have the responsibility to pay their own entry fee.
The link to the London Marathon website is http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/
2) Members who have achieved qualifying standards for either the Championship race or the Good for Age category, and as such qualify for an almost guaranteed entry, will be excluded from applying via the TBH ballot. This potentially increases the opportunity for more club members to take part in the London Marathon. The 2013 qualifying standards are identified below and enables a significant number of club members the opportunity to enter via these routes and avoid the mass ballot. It is not anticipated that these will change significantly, if at all, for 2014. The Good for Age entry opens in May 2013 and closes fairly soon after. Championship entries were open up to January 2013 for the 2013 event. It is the members own responsibility to apply for and pay for Good for Age or Championship entries. More information will be available on the London Marathon website from Monday 29th April.
| Good For Age | |||
|
Men |
Time (in hours) |
Women |
Time (in hours) |
| Age 18 – 40 | sub 3.10 | Age 18 – 49 | 3.15 – 3.50 |
| Age 41 – 59 | sub 3.15 | Age 50 – 54 | sub 4.00 |
| Age 60 – 64 | sub 3.30 | Age 55 – 59 | sub 4.15 |
| Age 65 – 69 | sub 4.00 | Age 60 – 64 | sub 4.30 |
| Age 70+ | sub 5.00 | Age 65 – 69 | sub 5.30 |
| Age 70+ | sub 6.30 | ||
| Championship | |||
|
Men |
Time (in hours) |
Women |
Time (in hours) |
| Full marathon | sub 2.45 | Full marathon | sub 3.15 |
| Half marathon | sub 1.15 | Half marathon | sub 1.30 |
Details of the Club ballot for places in the 2014 Virgin Money London marathon will be published later in the year.
7 Responses
Sounds good
Sorry Dave but I disagree with this every member pays £40 a year and I think we should all have the chance of winning a place in the London Marathon.
Hi Mark, sorry that you disagree with this proposal, but just to clarify a couple of things. David wasn’t actually responsible for the decision, he was the person who kindly put the article on the website. The proposal to the committee was actually made by me with the objective of securing as many places as possible for TBH members at the London Marathon, there is no intention to prevent anyone from putting an entry in. Rob’s points in respect of applying are spot on, we are simply saying that to get a place in the TBH ballot members have demonstrated a commitment to race by attempting to secure a place in the main ballot, which every member can freely do, no member is prevented from doing that.
In respect of the Good for Age and Championship entries, I realised last year that many members who had achieved qualifying standards were unaware that they had done so, and as such could have received a guaranteed entry. Sophie Marr for example would actually qualify for a Championship entry which is a massive achievement in it’s self., By promoting the qualifying standards and entering by this approach we hope that more members are on the start line at London and will actually increase the opportunities for other members to secure a place via the TBH ballot.
I think this is very fair way of distributing the VLM places and pleased to see the TBH committee has decided to introduce this. Mark.. every member doesn’t pay £40 per year.. dependent on their circumstances. Think by entering the ballot, a runner is showing that they are committed to the Marathon rather than just solely relying on the club to provide a place. If you want to do VLM.. just enter the ballot in the first place, if you get the knock back then there is the opportunity to get drawn for a club place. Also.. not every member of TBH will want to do VLM next year.
Alot of clubs already have this method of distributing VLM places to their members in place & is probably the fairest way.
Just an update, VLM have slightly amended their Good for Age qualifying standards for the 2014 event. These are the new ones.
Men Time (in hours) Women Time (in hours)
Age 18 – 40 sub 3:05 Age 18 – 40 sub 3:45
Age 41 – 49 sub 3:15 Age 41 – 49 sub 3:50
Age 50 -59 sub 3:20 Age 50 -59 sub 4:00
Age 60 – 64 sub 3:45 Age 60 – 64 sub 4:30
Age 65 – 69 sub 4:00 Age 65 – 69 sub 5:00
Age 70 – 75 sub 5:00 Age 70 – 75 sub 6:00
76+ sub 5:30 76+ sub 6.30
Ballot closed well before midday on 29th – much quicker than the 17 hours it took a year before!
anybody know when the good for age opens?