To be disapointed at not getting a London marathon place, but anoyed that charities want £1500 to run it.

[Teapotqueen]

I found out this week that I didn't get a place in the London marathon through the ballot, Iwas disappointed but thought I might be able to get a charity place. I checked some charity websites and the lowest amount needed to raise for a place is £1500. I am not particularly well off and neither are my friends so this rules me out of a place. I know they have to raise as much out of the place as they can, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. Thanks you for listening.

Yes, do a different marathon!

I have done London, through a ballot place, I wouldn't do it again. It was too busy, logistics were tricky and hard for my family to navigate the course to see me.

Brighton is next on my list, but there are loads out there. If you want a big city marathon, try Paris. I fancy Venice myself, but maybe when the ds's are older. New Forest marathon looks nice, and I've always fancied Beachy Head but it's the wrong time of year for me!

I love the idea of marathon tourism - Dublin, New York, Barcelona, Athens.
Venice sounds amazing!

Just an update. £1500 is a daunting amount of money for me to try to raise, but having read the posts I have decided to go for it. I have been applying to the charities and really hope I get a place. Wish me luck!!

Good luck, Teapotqueen!

If you're looking for a marathon, Milton Keynes are having their first full marathon next year, supposed to be very green and Eco friendly with a nice course, lots of parks, stuff en route... They're really making an effort to make the place sporty and sport friendly so I would have thought that they will be making a big effort to make it a nice event.

Plus there are no steep hill around here :) and you'll be able to say you ran at the first one...

Teapotqueen good for you

The charities usually have loads of support volunteers out as well. They'll be all around the course waving and cheering just when you most need it.

Great news teapotqueen. When you have your justgiving page up and running make sure you post it on here.

Good luck!

That's great teapotqueen, go for it!

Teapotqueen, that's brilliant. Definitely post your justgiving page on here, I'm sure a lot of people will support you.

My friend has tried for 7 years to get into the London Marathon and failed every year. Another friend is raising money for charity as she's done the LM and is about to do the NY one in a few weeks. She's raised the money by hosting charity zumba classes, coffee and cake mornings and various other ways not just sponsorship.

Great news Teapotqueen.

Take on board all the fundraising tips the charity will give you.

Break the sum down into monthly amounts so you have bite-sized goals and you can see your achievements.
Ask local businesses to sponsor you, or does your employer do matched fundraising?
A quiz night or charity supper at a local indian are good ideas.
Bag packing or christmas present wrapping (ask your local mall if you can have a table to offer a wrapping service - get a retailer to donate paper, sellotape etc).
Do a coffee morning.
Get your local paper to cover you and ask them to include a justgiving address.
Ask your friends to help you with an auction of promises (each offers a different service eg 1 hour's ironing, a manicure, an afternoon gardening, etc etc.)
Sometimes the charity you're fundraising for also run a quarterly raffle. Ask if you can sell tickets and put the amount you raise towards your £1500.
Car boot sale or craft sale.
If I think of any other ideas, I'll re-post.

A big ang genuine thanks for all your support and ideas. If I get a charity place (even these are over subscribed) I will let you all know. Ruby sorry for the silly remark I was feeling a bit down and £1500 seemed like an enormous mountain, i should have listened you were right all along! Fingers crossed!!

try entering the Paris marathon..its the week before London, and its first come first served so you know you are in straight away...fantastic place to run around..you get all the atmosphere of the big crowds etc (which you dont get at smaller marathons) . Its also pretty flat... Good luck with everything..xx

You can do it. I did it a few years ago.. needed to raise £1300 at the time. I was a SAHM with barely any real life friends. I ended up raising almost £2K plus the giftaid. It was amazing where the money came from - I would guess 75% of it was from people who had never met me but knew me online. And a few random strangers. I was genuinely shocked at the generosity of some of my friends, I could not believe it. Even DD1's nursery had a whipround for me, and they already had a member of staff running.

I never did any official fundraising, it was all as a result of my training blog which I kept updated whinging about how much it bloody hurt etc etc and celebrating all the milestones and goals as I passed them. I used JustGiving but there are better alternatives now I think.

The only downside is that I now feel compelled to "return" sponsorship to just about everybody that does anything, no matter how little effort is involved, for charity these days and I don't have a lot of money!!

Good luck! The training is far worse than the race, especially in January, and the 20 milers at the end. But the race day experience is once in a lifetime :)