Am I a POS if I join the masses and run London with no entry? (Hear me out)

If you're identified you'll probably just be blacklisted from entering London again, and maybe a bunch of other major races

Just grow up and train to run a gfa time, it's not that hard

Or pay for a charity place yourself if it means that much to you

Besides the bucket list types aren't taking places from dedicated runners. They start in later waves and toddle round in a totally different part of the course at all times. There wouldn't be capacity to reallocated all those places to faster runners. Course is already full to the brim, even at around 2:40 pace

Lol like that matters!

I can't get in anyway!

3:25?

Pathetic.

Guys, should I just jump the barriers and run London? My time is 2:56 so I can’t get a good for age time. It’s all just been ruined by these 3+ hour runners!

Can I justify just doing what the hell I want here based on other people?

Seriously, what about this particular race is so fantastic that you would to stoop to this level to run it?

Best marathon in best city in the world with the best crowds.

No I've not been to them all but Boston, Berlin, NY etc look dead

Any word in how many of last years finishes did it in 10+ hours?

Probably at least a few thousand

You have to be joking????

And when you say, “probably”, can we assume you don’t know?

Road racing is long dead and has no "honor" or whatever left to protect.

I don't care if you bandit this marathon, or get away with it, or not. But I sure get a kick out of these horrified reactions.

These coveted marathon numbers are the biggest, most overblown participation trophies in the sport. They mean absolutely nothing. Get over it, people

Ok, I’m not going to go on about this any more. I’m bored and tired. I’ll sum up.

What you’re doing is wrong. It’s entirely on you if you do it. You must accept responsibility for this. You can’t blame other people’s times, what the marathon has become, or charity places being too expensive. Wrong doing is very rarely justified, and none of those reasons justify this.

You’re attitude of blaming everyone but yourself is going to lead you down a dark hole. Take it from me as someone who’s been there. It is not a nice place to be.

You opened this conversation saying you had no other options, but as has been pointed out by me and others, you very clearly do, you just don’t want to do them.

You have no reason to do this. Can I suggest you stay the right side of the rules and moral position and choose not to do this. It is clearly the wrong thing to do.

You do not have a right to run London.

You wouldn't be doing the London Marathon. You would just be running on the same roads at the same time as people who are running it. You won't get a time and from your post it seems you won't be running the first 0.75 miles. So it would be pretty meaningless.

What are you going to say when people ask "What are you up to at the weekend?"

"Well - you know the London Marathon. Sort of that but not..."

I literally said I'd make up the bit I cut.

Better than nothing.

The irony is that you're complaining that it's 'just a bucket list' for other people when it sounds like that's exactly what it is for you too.

You do have a choice to get a legit entry, but you can't be bothered. You could train smart/hard enough to get the (very accessible) GFA time, or raise the money for charity instead. The latter is difficult if you've already done a few fundraisers, but just requires more work on your part - a fundraising quiz, a bake sale etc, rather than just begging. The charity would support you in the fundraising as well. But, again, it sounds like you just can't be bothered. You're looking for shortcuts and blaming everyone else.

I had 9 years of rejections in the ballot before I got my first GFA entry. And it was all the more special because I earned it. You haven't earned your entry this year - the 10 hour charity runners you're trashing have though, by raising the funds required.

Bandit the race if you want, but don't think you deserve to be there. Because you don't. Do it the right way and your first London marathon experience will actually mean something...

Actually, I had a very lucrative trade business that had been absolutely destroyed by low IQ Brexit planks.

By business has suffered immeasurably as a result of the poorly-educated, stupid people who have wrecked the UK economy, and people like me's businesses.

I Would have gladly just paid pre 2020.

Another example of intelligent people suffering as a result of the UK'S thickos.

Sometimes in moral quandaries such as this it can be all too easy to limit the issue to just yourself thinking: "What difference does it really make if I unofficially join?"

Instead you should be asking "What would happen if everyone who wants to run London unofficially joined the course?"

Because if we start giving a pass to individuals to cheat their way on to the course and more and more people start doing it, at what stage do we say "Well actually enough is enough now, there are too many unregistered people running and it's getting dangerous for participants." 500 extra? 10,000??

The reason people won't condone you joining the race whilst unregistered is that if the idea of that became normalised and everybody took your approach it would create an actual public danger, more stringent security measures and therefore more expensive entries.

I'll be honest. I'm passed caring.

If they want it to be fair simply.

1. Have a database so every applicant gets to run it once.

2. I'm sorry, get rid of GFA. "Yeah train harder"

I was a high level footballer and injury has meant I simply can't do the mileage to break 255 or I probably could.

I know people who've ran in 8 times.

So what? Not my problem?

And that's while I'll be joining a K in.

Also alot of these charities CEOs are on 200k, much of it is skimmed

Plus the marathon itself makes millions

You can moan and make excuses and blame other people all you want, but at the end of the day you would NOT even be doing the "London Marathon".
If you are not on the start list and if you don't start and finish in the same place and if you don't get an official time, be it 2:01 or 8:01 then you are just doing a long run around London.

Exactly. And even if noone around you realises you aren't there officially then you'll still be all too aware of it. It's like a streaker running on to the pitch during the FA Cup final and then telling their grandchildren that they 'were on the pitch alongside legends at a huge Wembley final'. You're only kidding yourself.