Monday, July 20, 2009

Virgin (Flora) London Marathon

I'm starting to look at 2010 races and like a few others of you out there think it would be cool to run all of the major marathons at some point in my life. I checked out the London website and found that if you've run the "Good for Age" times below, you get to bypass the lottery and automatically get a slot. (If you're under the first time listed you qualify for the elite start).

Men 18 - 40 2.45 - 3.00
Women 18 - 49 3.15 - 3.45

So I'm considering taking a trip across the pond next April to run this race instead of doing Boston again (London is the weekend after, 4/25/10). Judging by the time we had in Boston and the stories I heard from Miami, I think a TWSS European Invasion would be pretty sick. Good for Age entries are due 21 August 2009.

14 comments:

RM said...

I have that on the schedule for 2012 for myself personally, as it will be the Olympic year.

alyssa said...

This would be sick. However, I can't afford another big trip for next year as I'm running one race in Canada which costs an arm and a leg to get out to because you have to travel by Moose. I'd def consider 2011/2012 though.

alyssa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jen said...

I'm not sure if you are joking or not. Moose?

Funnyrunner said...

hey cool. I didn't know you could bypass the lottery by "qualifying." I'm always in London on a business trip the week before the marathon there, so perhaps I'll be able to do it. Last year my family came with me to London during my business trip, and we took a tour that included Greenwich, which is where the marathon starts. They were in the midst of all the preparations for the race. Very cool. I have a colleague who has run it and says it's awesome (and she lives in London).

Definitely a race I want to do...

BG said...

Too far.

alyssa said...

Hahaha. yes, I'm joking.

RM said...

Jen, did you really think she would have to travel by moose? Wow.

London is a race I want to do, but hardly a place I enjoy visiting. As with Boston, DC and formerly Philadelphia, London is on the list of my least favorite places to go, and is definitely #1 in Europe.

Plus we get jack shit for our money so going out isn't fun. There are no attractive chicks.

Alternative marathons to consider that would be way more fun places to go and/or hotter chicks:

Anything in Spain or Portugal
Sydney, AUS (think it's late Oct/early Nov)
Bermuda
Reykjavik (August)
Amsterdam! (Oct)
San Diego (June)
Nice

My original plan had been to knock out the majors in consecutive order, starting with NY (08), Boston (09), Berlin (09), London (10), Chicago (10) but that obviously isn't happening now :(

I have a whole list of fun travel races for next year I'll share with everyone that are in places that are warm, sunny and fun to go!

Collin said...

Wait, how does 'elite' work? If you get under 2:45, do they let you run for free or what? I'm not racing another marathon until October, so I guess it doesn't matter for this year, but I'd think about doing it in 2011.

RM said...

"do they let you run for free"?

Haha, are you serious?

Yes, for being marginally shitty at marathoning they'll let you run for free.

Guaranteed entry just means you don't have to mess with the lottery. Same goes for getting into NYC. Not sure if Chicago has a similar setup but they should. I know you can get an advanced start corral based on time.

Jen said...

Sometimes I'm really gullible, don't hate.

///MM said...

Spain is the shit. Great weather, great food, relatively cheap. Plus their lifestyle of waking up at 10, working till 3, napping, eating, drinking, maybe going back to work, then dining/drinking again from like 11-2 is fantastic.


Chicago only has "Top 100" auto entry and it's sick fast:
Men Women
Half Full Half Full
1:10:59 2:30:59 1:20:59 3:00:59

NYC is 1:23:00/2:55:00 for dudes, 1:27:00/3:23:00 for the ladies.

Collin said...

Well, usually "elite" means you get to run for free. I'm talking about the sub 2:45 not the sub 3:10 or whatever it was.

cheese said...

a friend of mine hasn't hit those chicago times, but he was telling me he somehow got the option of signing up as late as september 1 for it (yes i know it's full)