can I be added for a place pls?
I've sent you an email Chris.

I have now received the club places for the London Marathon, we have 3 places again.

The criteria for being considered for a place are:
You must have been a member of NHRR for at least a year
You must not have received a club place in the past five years
You must be willing to raise a minimum of £50 for the club charity (or this year charities)

AND you must have your rejection slip!

You can still apply if you don't satisfy all the criteria and may still be eligible for a place depending upon how many people satisfy all the criteria.

I will bring some forms up to the club for those interested in applying. Hopefully it will be available via the website aswell.

Thanks
Christine

I shall not enter for a club place as I had a place a few years ago.
I will do the Bungay marathon instead

Is no one interested?? I'm not getting much of a response, surely some of you must have been rejected and must be mad enough to want to run the London marathon! At the moment it must be worth applying even if you don't satisfy all the criteria.

Application forms are available on the club noticeboard or via the website. The deadline for returning the form is next Tuesday.

Thanks
Christine

How times have changed given these places were like gold dust a few years ago. Why could this be?

Mmmmmm - you know, I'm getting quite tempted by this. I do not have a 2010 rejection slip, but do meet all the other criteria.

Is it time to take the marathon plunge?

Like Statto, I meet all the criteria except that I didn't enter so therefore no rejection slip.

If there turns out to be no other interest and you are willing consider this, then count me in also.

I have completed the form and emailed a scanned copy to Christine/Lindsay. Will bring the real thing thing on Tue night.

Are you sure, Statto? I am not convinced you take this running lark seriously enough to enter a marathon.

Like Statto i do not have a rejection slip, but if there are not enough takers i do fit the other criteria, i think and would be keen to run and raise money. I missed out on a good for age entry for this year - because i forgot to get application form in on time! although i had done the qualifying time. i will fill in form and bring it to training tomorrow.

This encouragement was posted on this thread nearly three weeks ago

"You can still apply if you don't satisfy all the criteria and may still be eligible for a place depending upon how many people satisfy all the criteria".

However, this failed to stimulate any interest and by 27/11 still no-one had taken the bait. I started the ball rolling on 28/11 quickly followed over the week-end by Fin and John Russell. We meet all of the criteria bar having applied/failed via the lottery.

The closing date has now passed and we seem to have 3 applications for 3 available places. A very neat symmetry it seems to me!

Since no-one who has applied for the club London marathon places actually satisfies the main criteria for a place, i.e. having actually applied and been rejected in the London Marathon ballot it has been decided to waive this criteria for this year.

Therefore the main draw for a club place will be based on people satisfying the following criteria,
1) You must have been a NHRR member for at least a year
2) You must not have had a club place in the past 5 years
3) You must be willing to raise at least 50 pounds for the chosen NHRR charity.

Due to this change in the criteria the deadline for applying for a place has now been extended until Tuesday 8th December. Please complete an application form and return it to Christine or Lindsay if you satisfy the new criteria and now wish to apply.

The draw will then take place on Tuesday 15th December.

... and there was me thinking it was in the bag. I thought my appeal to the simple asthetic of symmetry was quite compelling too!

I shall stop writing up my marathon training plan now and await further news.

I hope this is not seen as a rant, but I am sure that Statto and possibly Fin feel the same, in that if we were the Three Wise Men! then surely the original cut off date should stand. The change in the criteria did actually take place a couple of weeks ago and still no one came forward. Having an extension means also that for which ever 3 are eventually picked then they have 2 weeks less marathon preparation time. I know this is a committee decision, however hopefully you can see where I am coming from.

Thanks John. Yes I agree, I too feel the criteria effectively changed several weeks before the original deadline. 3 applications were received that meet the relaxed criteria. 3 applications, 3 places, deadline passed - job done!

thanks Statto for the backup-if indeed we are the Three Wise Men, surely in this Bleak midwinter, when we have travelled so far (or at least round Letchworth) following our star(our various coaches) then we will bear gifts (sponsor money, marathon p.b.'s). So come all ye faithful committee members what do you think!

Just to be on the safe side, I suggest the following.

If there are no more applications by 15/12, send a letter to all home addresses and extend deadline to 31/12. If that doesn't work, try house-to-house canvassing and extend dealine again to 12/1.

Thus hopefully, sufficient extra interest can eventually be generated to ensure that at least one of the really interested people does not get a place?

If you were REALLY interested in the marathon, why did you not enter earlier in the year and get yourself a rejection slip ?

Thanks for the courageously anonymous advice!

You are right of course. It would have been better to have left the level of applications where I found them (@ zero) than to have registered my insincere and unworthy interest.

Yes, that's right Mr Statto. Why don't you get your own marathon place and stop trying to rob real London Marathon fans of their Club-places (even if we don’t seem to want them).

PS - has anyone seen my Scooby-snacks?

Hi everyone,

I can understand your points of view (all of you!).

The application form for the club places clearly stated (as in previous years) that you needed a rejection slip in order to apply (the wording on the form is different from the wording on this forum).

Since this condition was emphasised so strongly, and has now been removed, we felt that we should make this clear in case some people had removed themselves from the reckoning because of it.

We've relaxed some of the criteria in the past... but never this one!

John, Statto, Fin - please bear with us for another week or two. Hopefully it won't disturb your training too much.

Thanks,

Lindsay

Dear Frankincense & Myrrh.

I see your point but also agree with the committee decision to extend the deadline (some may say this is predictable).

It may that some may not have been so bold as to suggest they're considered for a place when it looked like nobody else wanted one. Now that there is a clearly revised criteria I think anyone who fits this that didn't speak up should be given a chance to apply. It could be said the requirements could have been revised earlier but then you may have got somebody (or 3 somebodies) all appear at the last minute. Where would be be then? Another club marathon place pickle?

Yours in anticipation for nearly 2 more weeks.

This subject caused almost as much debate at the committee meeting as it has here!

Am thoroughly enjoying this friendly banter though.

Go !

Just to add, we had 4 applicants for the places at the original deadline, not 3.

God rest us merry gentlemen (women) - not us! but we will for another 2 weeks! Not even gold, frankensence and myrrh could sway you?

So, the odds are lenghthening. As things stand, it's a bit like Strictly Come Marathoning. Someone must leave the show for good tonight after the run-off. For the record, I'm prepared to have my credentials fully examined by Alesha Dixon.

We three (OK, four) runners from North Herts are
One on his high horse, one in a car
One on a scooter bibbing his hooter
Following yonder star...

This is turning into quite a marathon thread.

Rossi - it was only 26 miles - you've now added the 0.2.

I've spelt out 'Statto for London' with weed killer on the cricket pitch.

I have some sympathy for you, you wanted something that no one else wanted.

A marathon thread - but we do need to travel afar! Us Wise men (+1?) will see amid the winter snow, great tidings of great joy will bring to Statto and his running men! So hark the herald squirrels sing!

"I've spelt out 'Statto for London' with weed killer on the cricket pitch."

Boris won't be happy about that.

... and lo, the the three wise men were actually four and they in their turn were joined by a number of shepherds, who had been keeping watch over their flocks by night in the fields nearby, when ...

An angel of the Club appeared to them, and the glory of NHRR shone around them, and they were afraid. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you glad tidings of great joy. Today in the town of Letchworth, three London Marathon places remain available. You will find the application forms wrapped in a Word document and lying in a website".

Merry Xmas to wise men, shepherds and angels all (and good luck in the draw)!

The deadline for applications has now been reached (AND Statto, it will not be extended!).

The draw will take place next Tuesday, 15th December.

Thanks Christine. You will still put my name in the hat though won't you?!

We three kings of Nhrr
Wearing our our luminous yellow
weve travelled so far
field and mountain,moor and marathon
Guide us to the perfect outcome!

Peace on earth and goodwill to all squirrels

Just 5 'hits' to go before the magic 1000!

Drat - knew I was supposed to do something yesterday. Is there really no chance of extending the deadline?! I'd like to have a double entry just in case I get a horrible race number from my original entry.... just imagine getting 666!

Thankfully, I already have a place, courtesy of my "good for dog" time at the Barking marathon. I would have done an even faster time had it not been for the high concentration of lamp-posts on the course!

It's good to see that that Statto and his 'wise men' will have some compeition for a club-place, now that the shepherds been brought in from the fields. Given their remote working environment, it was only fair that they were given a little more time to understand what was going on in the stable.

All,

While shephards watched
this string with glee
one seated in Iraq
The Chairman of the Club came down
To sort out all the flak

Fear not she said
For mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds
A marathon place I bring
To 3 of all mankind

To you in Letchworth
Town next week
A marathon draw will take place
The organiser who is Christine Sharp
Who's handled this just ace

Thus spake the Chairman
and forthwith
Will appear some lucky squirrels
3 runners praising luck who thus
shall represent the club.

All glory be to
those we choose
And to the rest be peace
God speed henceforth
From NHRR to them
Now train and never cease.

Happy Christmas to you all.

Rich

Dickie, you clearly have too much free time on your hands!!!

Lindsay - Exactly my thoughts!

I so want to hear Dickie singing his carol...... can I request a sing-a-long version is posted on this forum?

Tip for Dickie - you can record onto your mobile and then upload onto here.... then we can vote for different categories and give you marks /10 eg lyrics fitting to melody etc etc
But that's only if you have the time.....

Forget about X Factor. Dickie for Christmas number one!

This could be funny ! Come on Dickie, lets hear you!

I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground (leaving ground)
Will things ever be the same again?
It's the final countdown.

How many wise early-birds will catch the worm, and which shepherds can start washing their marathon socks by night?

And the Three Kings left empty handed:

Wise Men Utd 0-3 AFC Shepherds (AET)

Utd made most of the running in this tense local derby, but failed to get on the score sheet. The Shepherds made a late rally, scoring three times deep into extra time.

Utd fans were unhappy that the game was not settled in 90 mins however, following a controversial disallowed goal in the 88th minute from highly rated veteran striker Roy Statto.

For those who weren't there last night the people who got the club marathon places were Richard Harbon, Nicky Kemp and Sue Foot. Wishing you good luck with the next few months of training, hope you remain injury free and that you enjoy (?) the race in April.

Commiserations to all the other applicants.

With goal line technology that would have been a goal Statto and in this winter wonderland you would be now training for the marathon, the back 3 or 4 it seems didnt get a look in! were they even in the hat?

I think one of the AFC Shepherds scorers also put the ball in their own net, but this went unnoticed by match officials. This may not be strictly against the rules, but some referees may have registered this own-goal under the GFA priciple, which I think stands for "Goal not For but Against".

Roy Keane has lambasted the Wise Men's attempts to get their controversial London Marathon Draw replayed.

The Wise Men appealed to FILMD (Federation International de London Marathon Draws) after their 3 - 0 aggregate defeat by the Shephards on the basis that the winning draw came after a blatant Basra Shephard late entry.

But Ipswich boss Keane said: "They can complain all they want but the Shephards are going to the London Marathon - get over it.

"The Shephards were there for the taking and the Wise Men didn't do it. Same old story."

The Irishman, who made 65 appearances for the Wise Men as a sheep, continued: "If I'd been there in the dressing room after the draw, I wouldn't be talking about the late entry. I'd focus on why the Wise Men didn't . They should've cleared it.

"These are skills and lessons you learn as a schoolboy.

Runners World Article

Merry Xmas Roy.