October 5, 2017 XMiles Team

SORRY! from London Marathon? What are your spring marathon options?

So the London Marathon ballot is now closed and people are again getting the Yes or No news either via the postman or via e-mail.

The 5 years of rejection and you get a place was ended in 2010 due to it becoming mathematically impossible to London Marathon to service all the guaranteed entries, so what are your options?

The number of places available through the ballot varies each year depending on the number of runners who qualify for Good for Age places and the number of entries that are deferred from the previous year so it is always going to be down to luck if you get a place or not.

Charity places are an option but this is sometimes not practical, due to commitments of fundraising goals.

The only way to guarantee your place is to achieve a Good for Age time, the table below shows the criteria for GFA.

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

Running a GFA time is not easy, it will take time, commitment and dedication to training with the added pressure of work, home-life plus the needed avoidance of injury for the 12 - 18 week training window.

So you still want to run a marathon, or you want to try and run a GFA time and it's a NO from London, what are your options?

There are many great marathons in the UK and Europe that are just as special to run so we have compiled a list to help you get over the disappointment and find a new Spring marathon target.