Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Another Ballot Record
by Russell Turner - 10:25 on 03 May 2025
This year’s It’s Really Not Fair Day will be held in July when the results of the London Marathon ballot are revealed. Today is Something Should Be Done Day when LM HQ gleefully trumpets a new record in ballot applications and the running world moans that the race is impossible to enter (despite the fact that 57,000 managed it this year).
That said, it has got a little bit silly – more than a million people and only 17,000 ballot places, the rest going to charities, good for age, running clubs and a few odds and ends. Those who suggest the ballot shouldn’t open at the same time as the marathon, to discourage people entering on a whim, have a point, but not one I agree with. Who knows how many non-runners will become runners after getting a place? And as Matchgirl points out, rejection is all part of the genuine London Marathon experience.
Anyway, the ballot itself generates a huge amount for charity, which is, apart from the elites and top club runners at the front, what the race is now really for. I’ll keep entering the ballot, and donating my entry as my annual runner’s tax, and maybe I’ll be successful a third time.
In the meantime, it’s three weeks until the Edinburgh Marathon. My post-virtual easy week is over; on Monday I get serious by repeating the training plan’s three-week taper. With luck, the winds roaring past The Rural Retreat will have dropped by then. At least it’s not raining; what happened to the heatwave?
Add your comment
© Russell Turner 2008-2025