London Marathon 2016

AAD

Got my PFO in the middle of the night.

I noticed that they keep telling people about charity places on their Facebook and the front of the Spider mag, but on my mail there was no mention of them, instead they are directing me towards the over priced tour operators.

Fingers crossed I still get a charity place but if not its onto next year.

crisco10

Got a no.

Email only pointing me toward tour operators...

WithCheesePlease

village runner wrote: »

Fri 12.45 and sunday 19.25
Love that I am at the expo within 5 min in a cab...

Don't be afraid, you've never met me but I've just booked the very same flight as you :eek:

I had been sitting pretty with with my GFA entry the past few months and figured I'd better get my flights sorted before the rush starts!

village runner

WithCheesePlease wrote: »

Don't be afraid, you've never met me but I've just booked the very same flight as you :eek:

I had been sitting pretty with with my GFA entry the past few months and figured I'd better get my flights sorted before the rush starts!

So did I.....

razor12345

village runner wrote: »

Fri 12.45 and sunday 19.25
Love that I am at the expo within 5 min in a cab...

Where is the expo located?

Cheers

Ray

robinph

razor12345 wrote: »

Where is the expo located?

Cheers

Ray

In the ExCeL which is in the London Docklands.

It is very close to the London City Airport, but don't let that overly influence your choice of flights/ hotel. You can get to the expo very easily on the DLR/ Underground from the centre of London. Options for accommodation and flights in London are endless.

MacSwifty

just got the 'ol PFO

mch82

Still waiting.....has anyone got a yes email yet?

RunningFree 2014

Got my no at about 9.30 last night. So I'll be watching the coverage on the couch with my bowl of popcorn again and crying at all the coverage of peoples reasons to run!

jebuz

RunningFree 2014 wrote: »

Got my no at about 9.30 last night. So I'll be watching the coverage on the couch with my bowl of popcorn again and crying at all the coverage of peoples reasons to run!

Don't buy salted, allow the natural salts of your teardrops to flavour the popcorn. That should cheer you up.

rainbow kirby

Of all the years... I got a ballot spot. Deferring to 2017.

robinph

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Of all the years... I got a ballot spot. Deferring to 2017.

Congrats.
Make sure it's you that gets to run in 2017, and leave Mr kirby supporting.

AAD

Got some good news today,

I have been given a charity place for 2016. Can't wait to get going for it. This will be my first marathon so any advice would be great. Also anybody around Dublin 15 who is building up tii T or any other marathon I'd be up for a run.

Cheers
James

rainbow kirby

^ The DCM novices thread would be a good place to start if you're training for your first - a lot of good advice there.

AAD

Thanks very much for this Rainbow Kirby, I have been looking through the thread over the last couple of days.

belcarra

Just managed to get a place for this through unusual circumstances.
Time to make a plan now and get training.

So, who else is running?

AAD

I am,

I'm injured at the minute but have been training since November and it was going very well, couple of half marathons ran etc. So plan at the minute is to get over this injury and then really start ramping up training and miles. Really looking forward to it as its my first marathon.

RandRuns

I'm running London as well. I will be raising funds for Children with Cancer UK, in memory of Eric Mason. All going well, it will be my 25th or 26th marathon.

AAD

That's the same charity I'm with. I generally do some kind of charity event every year. The last two years have been for kids with severe disabilities so this year I opted to run the marathon as my charity event. Good luck.

tang1

belcarra wrote: »

Just managed to get a place for this through unusual circumstances.
Time to make a plan now and get training.

So, who else is running?

Ye can't win Sam but ye can blag ye're way into the London Marathon. Don't know which is tougher!!

ooter

Starting training proper on Wednesday, the next 14 weeks will fly by.
Missed out on DCM through injury so really hoping this block goes well.

Woden

Yeah i'm on board. Have been down with a club the last two Thursdays and did the first LSR last weekend. Working on a plan and just booked in a half marathon for 20th March.

AAD

Woden wrote: »

Yeah i'm on board. Have been down with a club the last two Thursdays and did the first LSR last weekend. Working on a plan and just booked in a half marathon for 20th March.

What one did you book??

My plan is Raheny 5 - Trim 10 - Dune half for Feb. Haven't looked beyond that yet. Long runs on Sunday's are around half marathon every week.

belcarra

tang1 wrote: »

Ye can't win Sam but ye can blag ye're way into the London Marathon. Don't know which is tougher!!

It's not about what you know, but who you know...

Woden

AAD wrote: »

What one did you book??

My plan is Raheny 5 - Trim 10 - Dune half for Feb. Haven't looked beyond that yet. Long runs on Sunday's are around half marathon every week.

I'm in London at the moment so its the Fleet Half Marathon here on the 20th which seems to market itself as a good race prior to London. Bath on the 13th was already sold out unfortunately.

robinph

Woden wrote: »

I'm in London at the moment so its the Fleet Half Marathon here on the 20th which seems to market itself as a good race prior to London. Bath on the 13th was already sold out unfortunately.

I wouldn't be too worried about missing the Bath Half entry. I don't like the look of the course as it's two laps but with a nasty short hill on each one, and unless you are sub 1:20'ish I've seen that you get caught up in overcrowding at the point where lap two people start going past lap one people on what is too narrow a road with cones down the middle so people will just be randomly hopping between them as their side of the road gets too busy.

Bath is also very expensive and a pain to drive to.

rainbow kirby

robinph wrote: »

Bath is also very expensive and a pain to drive to.

Seconding this, as we discovered the hard way the weekend of the Leinster match! :pac:

Reading half is very good as well but it's late this year (3rd April), probably because of Easter.

Woden

Cool that's good to know. The Vitality series in generally is a bit pricey. On the 20th March also is the North London half which is £40 or so. Similar to the Hackney half (although i'll continue to do this as its my local borough and nice to do). These are almost twice the price of Fleet.

No worries on Bath I thought I could dovetail in a weekend away and we have some friends down there to stay with but perhaps next year.

robinph

How about Gloucester 20 which is on the same day as Bath Half. Yes it's a bit longer, but a 20 mile race will be more use to you in marathon preparation than a half. Gloucester isn't as glamorous a location as Bath, but the course is right by the M5 so easy access, it's a much smaller race, it's three laps around some villages so you feel like you are out in the middle of nowhere and whilst there is a hill on each lap for a 20 mile marathon build up race I'm less concerned about finish time than I would be about a half where I'd be aiming for a PB. Nobody really cares about 20 mile PB's.

Last year I did Gloucester 20 followed by San Dominico 20 in Merthry Tydfill the week after and I think they did wonders for my London result. Not sure if I'll double up with them again this year due to baby sitting duties, but if I can work around that I may do both again.

Woden

Interesting! As it happens on weekend of 13th I'm going to be in Worcester which is about 45mins by car from Gloucester google maps informs me. I'll run that one by the other half who would be doing the driving and being dragged out of bed on Sunday morning!