This is true. It's moving further and further away from the club scene with every passing year. They reduced the number of places clubs get for providing volunteers as well. It'll always have a top elite field, but behind that, it's becoming more like a really long Parkrun and club runners are going to go elsewhere. Valencia is becoming huge now for club runners. It's not too expensive to get there, the course is amazing, and the weather is almost guaranteed to be good.
Yes, same for us. Valencia is very popular.
The ladies were very frustrated this year. The elite age category women were bumped up against the mass participation men running sub-3 and were pushed around as they all came hurtling through.
It’s just too big. Too many people. And it seems to epitomise the sort of smug, self-satisfaction of the UK, claiming to be the best but really being a bit rubbish.
That said, the mini marathon is great!
This has been a problem for years. First encountered it the year I ran 2:35 off the first wave (behind champs) having to try and run through 1000 women running between 2:40-3:15 was really really difficult because it takes a while to thin out and the speed differential between 3:40ish and 4:30ish is absolutely enormous.
Then have also run off the championship start running closer to 3 hours and had alll those guys trying to squeeze through. Most people are pretty polite about it tbh but it really is incredibly unpleasant for all involved.
Worst of all is that there ultimately a ridiculously simple fix to it (get the non-champs entry men running sub3 ish to run off a different start.)
What irritates me the most is people getting gifted places from sponsors and then not actually declaring how they've got their entry. I cannot believe all of these "influencers" managed to get a ballot place and I don't know of many with GfA times, but then I maybe saw one person say it was an ad. And that to me is really really poor.
The partner of James Warnock, Alex, I think her name is, was offered a place by new balance at the start of the year. She’s an influencer. And I believe a 5 hour marathoner. Another example of p*ss poor preference for influencers. She declined the place because she said she couldn’t hack another block. She’d ran New York in November with New Balance. Madness. Honestly. From my experience, away from London, there are some really good marathons out there
Putting it out there - the most annoying running influencer out there. How is she finding time to have all these pictures/videos before and after the race? The purists out there, rock up, got the job done, go home and back to work on a Monday. Sometimes I miss how running was prior to covid. Whilst im so happy to see the participation rate grow, I hate seeing the content creators out there narrate it. Anyone else?
Big Bowden fan. One reason is that I’ve gotten to see her evolve from YouTuber to a Pro. And for those who say she’s not a pro, she was on the elite start with just 14 other women in an amazing field at a Major. If London says she’s an elite pro, perhaps LetsRun can jump on board? And as for original poster making sure we all knew she was far off her goals (2:22-2:23), she was way ahead of you. She’s pretty transparent about a lot of this, and that’s another reason why people follow her and root for her.
Big Bowden fan. One reason is that I’ve gotten to see her evolve from YouTuber to a Pro. And for those who say she’s not a pro, she was on the elite start with just 14 other women in an amazing field at a Major. If London says she’s an elite pro, perhaps LetsRun can jump on board? And as for original poster making sure we all knew she was far off her goals (2:22-2:23), she was way ahead of you. She’s pretty transparent about a lot of this, and that’s another reason why people follow her and root for her.
Worth pointing out - Bowden, is an elite, yes. Don’t feel she fulls under the influencer category. Problems lie with the likes of Jonny Davies and Mary McCarthy. Heard someone on a podcast recently label Jonny as a faster walker, rather than a runner. Very good. Side note, another week gone by without JoshJogs being banned.
The London Marathon kinda sucks these days. Their goal to turn it into the largest mass participation run in the world has turned it into a conveyer belt of nonsense.
Hideously crowded. Over hyped and almost over supported. It’s crap. The majority of runners from my London club are done with it.
Anyway, on the day, people got surprised by the hottest day of the year so far and all, to a man and woman, went out too fast.
Everyone blew up.
Not everyone blew up. The heat has formed a perfect excuse for lack of training of those shooting for unrealistic targets, or lack of experience for not factoring in conditions on the day and going out way too hard. Plenty of experienced runners who have trained hard in there ran relatively even splits.
Hahahaha. “No pressure”…. Who’s putting pressure on her? Absolutely no one. You’re not a professional athlete, you making silly little videos with your boyfriend who follows you like a lost puppy. Get a real job Mazzaaaaa
The partner of James Warnock, Alex, I think her name is, was offered a place by new balance at the start of the year. She’s an influencer. And I believe a 5 hour marathoner. Another example of p*ss poor preference for influencers. She declined the place because she said she couldn’t hack another block. She’d ran New York in November with New Balance. Madness. Honestly. From my experience, away from London, there are some really good marathons out there
Why would you need a block of training to do a 5 hour marathon? I could shuffle 4 hours on 10 mpw.
She’s a cop out like many of them. Her partner, like Mary, despite endorsements and no 9-5 both can’t break sub 3. But doesn’t matter, they get engagement and content from it with their pity party questioning why they missed it? Why the marathon owes them sub 3. Lol!
Philly has a payed coaching program? Looool. I just looked it up and it looks like you can get her to be your coach for 150 or you can pay 155 and be coached by her coach. Mhhhhh do I want to pay for the person who can’t coach herself or the guy who got her down to 2:25 mhhhhh. 5 dollars is a little rich.
Saw her and her boyfriend at Hackney half. Kept recording their run everywhere KM, the most annoying thing to be behind. Just bloddy run! Hilarious how Mary thinks she’s a rapid athlete. Guarantee she won’t last long in the sport
Saw her and her boyfriend at Hackney half. Kept recording their run everywhere KM, the most annoying thing to be behind. Just bloddy run! Hilarious how Mary thinks she’s a rapid athlete. Guarantee she won’t last long in the sport
I like her as little as the next person but in her defence she’s run all her life and it was her sport as a kid (not hard to find that info out) so not sure I agree with “she won’t last long” because she already has
You’re not wrong, she has been running her whole life, she harps on about that. For real though, I still don’t see her lasting long in the sport. She’ll go where the money is. Also, for someone running her whole life, is it not embarrassing she hasn’t broken 3hrs? Yes