London Marathon

[Luke Dunstan]

It seems I'm looking in to this a bit late as next years marathon places were taken up in April!

Does anybody know of the best way to get hold of a place? Seems to be a lot of charities that were allocated places.

Any sign up advice would be appreciated.

[JD™]

It's all about charities. Also, the ballot for next years marathon doesn't take place till October, so you I believe you can still apply for a place in the ballot until then - could be wrong because I haven't applied for it since the first Virgin one and I guess they could have changed it.

In terms of charities, you've got the best chance by going for a charity local to you than one of the larger ones that will set you a massive money raising target. For instance, the British Heart Foundation were asking for about £5k in sponsorship in the runup to the day, whereas I ended up running for the Childrens Trust which were happy with a few hundred quid because I was local and got a few little mentions in local media in the build up.

[Luke Dunstan]

Said the ballot closed in April, I've had a response from a children's charity saying it's not too late, so hopefully my name will stick in their heads when they choose.

[JD™]

The charities can choose whenever they like - they'll already have their places allocated so get badgering them

Shame the ballot is closed, it's nice to get in that way as well.

If you're not that fussed about who you run for, I'd just send out a request to every charity that's local to you in the hope they had a place.