Should I enter next year’s London Marathon with a charity place?

[NooNooHead1981]

I haven’t run a proper race for about 5 (?) years when I did the London half marathon- I used to run regularly and was very fit before I had DC.

I’m looking enviously at my friend’s achievement today after her London Marathon run and want to give myself something to aim for. But am I being too ambitious with my plans having 2 DC (one who is under one at the moment)? Plus having not run for a while, perhaps I should aim for another half marathon again first?!

Advice would be much appreciated, thank you...

I should have said that I feel like my time would be very restricted to train etc with my youngest, plus as my DH is away 3 days a week for work in London, I might struggle getting my runs in...

In that case I wouldn’t take a charity place. There are some decent marathons (Edinburgh? Paris?) that don’t have a ballot.

Or if you’re desperate to do a London based one then choose a London half.

Ive entered the ballot. Id never go for a charity place. Too much pressure to raise money and the pressure of training for a marathon is enough without having the stress of raising cash.

Yes you are being too ambitious.
You are setting yourself up to "fail" which will just make you feel sad and resentful. Why not enter a 10k in the autumn, see how you get on and then review.

Fitness wise that's probably a far more effective thing to try at this stage, too.

nb I am a runner!

I’ve run London 5 times and got pulled out of the ballot 4 times.

Charity places are easy to get with a minimum fundraising target, so I’d enter the ballot, start training ASAP and if unsuccessful take a charity place then. No point committing to that prior to knowing the ballot outcome

You need to speak to your DH. Marathon training requires a lot of time out of the house, and you both need to discuss whether this will fit in with both of your schedules and with family time.

Definitely speak to your DH too. When i did my marathon (fucking gruelling one and all🙈) i was up at 5am Saturday or Sunday morning forcing myself to eat breakfast so i could be out at 6:30 meeting friends to run. I was home by 10:30-11:00. My kids are older though so I could leave older ones to watch younger child. But you still need to run those midweek 5-10ks and a longish run too.

Looking back it was bonkers!

I would never take a charity place for the London marathon, they pay around £800 for the place which I think is absurd and I'd feel ridiculous asking my friends and family to pay for something I want to do (desperately!).

With regards to the training and ability to run it - if you have great support then you absolutely could do it. I have one pre schooler and have entered the ballot. If you can join a running club and join their long weekend runs it will help keep you on track. I'd worry if you you don't feel you can commit to the training though.

I'd do exactly what namechange says. Stick your name in the ballot now, start training and see how you get on by the time they give the results in the Autumn. If you're running well and managing to fit it in but don't get a place then you can think about charity places then.

No, it’s a year away so you can do the training. I ran my first marathon within a week of DC2’s first birthday, DC1 was four. I also have a demanding job (only had a short maternity leave so that didn’t help) with a long commute.

But don’t underestimate the training. It’s a real slog. I was getting up at 5am at weekends to be running by 5.30am and going for 5km runs in my lunch break. It’s possible but you have to really want to do it. It was hard, really hard. Due to my commute I couldn’t fit in more than 5km Mon-Thur so my training plan wasn’t ideal but I did:

Sun - long run eventually up to 33km
Tue & Wed - 5km
Fri - eventually up to 10km

I’ve had eight consecutive unsuccessful London marathon ballot entries though so don’t rely on that. It’s the race I really want to do but I don’t have the network to raise that sort of money for charity, and the time to do that alongside training. I stick to half’s now but still enter London (and New York) ballots every year....

The minimum fundraising commitment is usually £2k (plus you pay all your own race fees) and some charities fill their places rapidly and have to turn down applicants. If you are considering this, get on charity waiting lists now.

The public ballot is open now (until Friday)

I agree with the others - it's not just the race itself that's tough, it's the training and - assuming you're going to do it at least halfway decently - you need time to run 3-4 times a week, plus 1-2 sessions of strength training, and there will be long runs in training (do you have 4 hours spare weekly from all through Feb and March when the intensity of training will be the major thing in your life).

Sometimes, things go wrong and people don't get through their training plans, run anyhow and it's OK. But I think it would be rash to enter if you don't have a firm intention of doing a proper level of training.

Try googling some training plans and see if you think you can fit it in.

But apply for a place - if successful you can always defer it to 2021 and follow the advice above about getting up to Half fitness levels, getting some events under your belt, and stepping up from that.

I don't think it's well known how much the charity pays for the place. There's a variety of packages etc but the minimum I paid in a fundraising role at a national charity was £1500. So if you don't raise the money then the charity loses money! I've had amazing people raise £10k before and the London Marathon attracts great sponsorship but if you don't think you can fundraise properly please don't take a charity place. As others said, get an own place in Manchester, Edinburgh or Brighton and raise whatever you like for a charity.

I once had a CF multi national company approach the charity and say they'd 'do me a favour' by taking 10 places and raising £500 each. I pointed out that I'd be thousands down if I did that and it wasn't doing me a favour!

I’ve run London several times, one charity and the rest on Good For Age which is the automatic qualifying time. Running that sort of distance safely takes a lot of training.
Personally if you’ve not run in five years I’d take it up again, do a few 10ks/parkrun and aim for a spring half next year and if you enjoy it and find that you have time to do it (!!) then go for it the following year.

My DH has a place this year but had to defer because it was so difficult to get the training done with two young DC (ours are 2 and 3) and a full time job. Next year our kids will be older and hopefully a bit less full on, so now he's aiming for that!

We both did a few half marathons last year and lots of 10k races, training for those was much more doable and actually I think I half marathon is still something to be proud of.

I wouldn't enter on a charity place if I was in any doubt about doing the race, it's too much pressure. I'd find a couple of good half's to do and take it from there.

If I could have one runners wish come true it would be to change the name of the half marathon. No other sporting event is named for its poor comparison to another event.

I have done a half and it was fantastic, a huge achievement. I know I couldn't run a marathon and I'm not sure the human body was (generally) designed to do so.

I'd do halfs. But don't call them halfs. Call them something fucking good instead. Like an enduro, a strength run or a Lannisters Death. Half is an insult.

(and if a half isn't then challenging you enough, then start marathon training).

Morris My preferred racing distance is 1/2 and 10 milers. They suit me best, both physically and for the training I can do.

Generally people who think that you're not a runner unless you've run a marathon don't know a great deal about racing.

Thank you for your replies! Really useful - and I think I will aim for 10k runs and half marathons until I get my fitness back properly 😎🏃‍♀️

As others have said there are other marathons. A lot of the really good ones are in the autumn but the problem you have then is that you don't have the build-up races. When people are training for London/Brighton/Manchester/Milton Keynes/Southampton/Blackpool/Boston UK and US/Belfast they have the benefit of various 20 mile races which are a great organised way to get the long runs done. If you choose something like Chester, Dublin or York you don't have those races so it's harder to get the long runs done (unless you are really disciplined and can find safe routes to run a long way on your own).

Someone said above if a half isn't challenging you enough, start marathon training. You have time to train for the Chester metric marathon on 6th October, which is 26km so about 16 miles. 5 months is enough to train up to that distance especially if you used to be fit - your body will remember. After that you could think about a marathon next year.

I did a marathon when my youngest of 3 was 1.5. it was hard to fit in the training around family life, esp with a DH who works 7 days a week. Things that made it possible were running 3 times a week and doing an autumn marathon, which meant I could do all but the last few really long (18+) runs in the evenings when the kids were in bed. With a spring marathon you're training over the winter so need full support of family to spend half of a weekend day running. I actually really like half marathons, it's still a great achievement, gets you fit and really enjoy 8-10 mile scenic runs. Don't push yourself too hard when your kids are young and life is busy, there is no rush to do it this year. Saying that, if you really wanted it you could make it happen but it does end up taking over your life for the months before.

I would say no. I have only ever run two halfs but one was so much easier than the other because I was fully prepared ( i.e I had run 17 miles in training. For the first I had only run 7 miles). Do as others say and work up to it.

Morris I completely agree! They don't call a 5k a 'half 10k' do they? 13.2 miles is still a really long way and plenty tough enough to be impressive. I've done a couple which call themselves a 21k which seems better.

Ive never thought of it like that, but its true!

In my time I grew to love the 13.1 distance (challenge but do-able with sensible levels of training) and wish I hadn't given up running now (only just got back to it using couch to 5k). I gave up as the children were young and my Sundays were being written off after a long run and getting home at close to lunchtime.

Metric Marathon! Genius! That's the new name right there. Never say half to me again.