Ask the coach: I didn’t get into London via the ballot. Am I too old to focus on the Good for Age qualification for London Marathon?

I didn’t get into London Marathon via the ballot. Am I too old to focus on Good for Age qualification for London?

Ivan

Running coach answer: Good for Age qualification for London Marathon

The odds against you getting through the ballot process for most of the major marathons are increasingly stacked up against you. For London, there was a record ballot entry of 840,318 applicants – this for just 30,000 or 40,000 of the places available through the ballot option – clearly, you have to be extremely lucky to get chosen.

Of course, London is larger than the number of places that are available in the ballot. The excess that make up the full field will also include places for charities, which is something, we believe, that is written into the London Marathon charter, and there’s also an element for International Travel Partners, to ensure an International spread.

One of the other stated aims of the London Marathon, from it’s inception, was to raise the standards of marathon running in the UK. So, places are reserved for National Championship runners, a race held in conjunction with the London Marathon. These are the sub-elite who can qualify via proof of reaching a qualification standard –  these are the runners we hope will develop from the experience and go on to become elite in the future.

Then there are other places reserved for age group runners, who need to reach different qualifying times relative to their age. While the majority of runners come from the ballot, some get in through being fast for their age. These are known as ‘Good for Age’ qualifying places.

Such is the standard of some age groupers, some do qualify for the National Championships as well. This was the case for the UK’s Treena Johnson, who competes in the 60-64 age group. She ran 2.57 in the Chester Marathon in 2023 to qualify for London 2024 as a Championship runner – she went on to record 2.59 in London.

The standard is high then. Even if you have a qualifying time for your age group you may still not get a guaranteed place.

For 2025, the London Marathon states that there are 6000 places available for Good for Age (GFA) from a total entry of around 50,000. These are split evenly 3000 for men and 3000 for women. If there are more qualifiers than available places, acceptance will be for the fastest applicants in each age group first. As this has been the case for several years, you may have to be considerably faster than your age-qualifying time to get chosen.

With the established Master’s age groups being recognised in 5 year gaps, there is a different standard for each age grouping – for London these are:

In the case of the London Marathon, entry through GFA is only available for UK runners, and qualifying times must be run on a certified course by UKA, AIMS, or a national governing body if the race is not in the UK.  

The qualifying period for times to count for 2025 entry is between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024. Applications will open in October for the April 27^th, 2025 race.

Visit the Good For Age entry – TCS London Marathon for information on how to make an application.

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