Usually, as ‘ballot results week’ approaches, chatter around the Virgin London Marathon starts up on social media and charities send e-shot mailers wishing participants luck, and ask for consideration in joining their teams as a charity entrant. This year however, it was noticeably a bit quieter, and I didn’t receive a single email from any charities.
Entrants would usually receive a magazine through the post with a picture of sad-looking runner/s next to the words ‘Sorry’; or those who had been lucky enough to secure a place would receive a magazine with a photo of happy runner/s celebrating, captioned ‘You’re In!’, so I was keeping an eye out for the post.
During ‘ballot week’ I saw just a handful of posts on social media of runners expressing sadness and disappointment or excited/nervous happiness, and discussing charity places.
I don’t mean to sound negative but I’ve been applying for a place in the marathon for literally about six years and have always been rejected, so didn’t hold out any hope.
This year the event organisers didn’t even bother to send out a rejection magazine; I just received an email towards the end of ‘ballot week’ and it stated as suspected: “Your application to run… has been unsuccessful”. Surprise surprise!
Readers of my blog may know that I’ve never run a marathon before but would love to – I want to tick it off my bucket list and run 26.2 miles before I turn 30. I’ve walked countless marathons but haven’t actually run one, and feel it would be a huge achievement. My first choice has always been the London Marathon: I’ve always thought that if I ever ran a marathon, it will be this event. But running for charity isn’t an option; London Marathon fundraising targets are in the thousands and I’ve found that people aren’t overly generous any more (it’s always been a struggle begging for sponsorship), and I can’t justify picking up any outstanding amount that I’m not able to fundraise. I do a huge amount for charity as it is.
I turn 30 in April so I guess that’s it… It’s not meant to be! I’m not going to apply to the London Marathon any more… Enough is enough ! I’ve signed up to take part in the Brighton Marathon in early April next year (no ballot!), so I’ll still be able to achieve my goal of completing a marathon before I reach 30, but it won’t be the London Marathon.
😦
Laura's footprints 