London Marathon 2018

robinph

Thanks. That is what I feared.

Will just have to get an earlier train and head right down to the end of the platform and hope for the best. If the weather is good though then we'll be able to have a warm up, tire the kid out for a bit, on Blackheath before handing them over to a responsible grandparent for the day.

Gavlor

robinph wrote: »

Thanks. That is what I feared.

Will just have to get an earlier train and head right down to the end of the platform and hope for the best. If the weather is good though then we'll be able to have a warm up, tire the kid out for a bit, on Blackheath before handing them over to a responsible grandparent for the day.

Could the wife and kids not head out to Blackheath after the rush??

It’s a long enough wait for you around the gfa area as it is

Edit just copped the “we” bit, I’m guessing your good wife is running too??

robinph

Yep, both running this year as I've got my GFA place and the good lady wife got a club entry.

Not yet given consideration to how we are going to retrieve the kid afterwards yet, but that's a whole other challenge I don't give a damn about at the moment.

Gavlor

robinph wrote: »

Yep, both running this year as I've got my GFA place and the good lady wife got a club entry.

Not yet given consideration to how we are going to retrieve the kid afterwards yet, but that's a whole other challenge I don't give a damn about at the moment.

Whatever you do, don’t allow them play on the floor of the strand palace foyer.......

overthebridge

Killerz wrote: »

I'm staying close to the finish line and flying in and out of heathrow. Anyone who may be going that route and is short on time, 90 day advance tickets on Heathrow express are significantly cheaper than booking on the day and will save a good amount of time vs tube.

I'll have plenty of questions as we get closer to the time but as we are closing in on the 90 days, thought I'd post if anyone interested

We're flying in and out of Heathrow too and I also looked at the Express.
I'm open to correction but I reckon it's cheaper and maybe a little easier to get the tube from Heathrow into Green Park, change to the Jubliee Line and go all the way to Canning Town.
The DLR then runs into the ExCel from Canning Town

Killerz

overthebridge wrote: »

We're flying in and out of Heathrow too and I also looked at the Express.
I'm open to correction but I reckon it's cheaper and maybe a little easier to get the tube from Heathrow into Green Park, change to the Jubliee Line and go all the way to Canning Town.
The DLR then runs into the ExCel from Canning Town

Could be, depends on what peoples plans are. I'm going into the city and the hotel which is close enough to paddington so that suits me. Will head out to the Expo later on then. I'll also be heading home from that hotel so makes sense for me or someone in my situation so thought I would share.

Glencarraig

overthebridge wrote: »

We're flying in and out of Heathrow too and I also looked at the Express.
I'm open to correction but I reckon it's cheaper and maybe a little easier to get the tube from Heathrow into Green Park, change to the Jubliee Line and go all the way to Canning Town.
The DLR then runs into the ExCel from Canning Town

90 day advance purchase for the express is £25, single tube fare is around £6

robinph

Gavlor wrote: »

Whatever you do, don’t allow them play on the floor of the strand palace foyer.......

They have replaced the carpets throughout the foyer area since that incident.

Killerz

Glencarraig wrote: »

90 day advance purchase for the express is £25, single tube fare is around £6

£5.50 Heathrow express fare 90 day purchase for Saturday travel. £12 odd on the Monday. I posted this as its a reasonably quick alternative to the tube - may suit some people ahead of the 90 day cut off. Kind of sorry I bothered at this stage!

https://m.heathrowexpress.com/CheckFares

Glencarraig

Killerz wrote: »

£5.50 Heathrow express fare 90 day purchase for Saturday travel. £12 odd on the Monday. I posted this as its a reasonably quick alternative to the tube - may suit some people ahead of the 90 day cut off. Kind of sorry I bothered at this stage!

https://m.heathrowexpress.com/CheckFares

My sincere apologies, I didnt see the weekend fare, specsavers will be getting a call !!

gucci

I have booked "Venture Hostel" which is 20min walk from Blackheath Hill.

Its a dorm, I am not expecting much sleep (I usually sleep flip all the night before anyways) but hopefully there will be a few other marathon runners in the dorm who will maybe be looking to stay reasonably quiet the night before at least!

I have only a deposit put down at the moment, so am open to any better suggestions that may come up here!

innuendo141

Staying in a Hostel in Hammersmith. Got a room to myself, and its around the 50 mins to the start so I'm happy enough.

robinph

I made use of a dorm in a hostel before Dublin last year. There were no other runners in my room, just a bunch of Spanish students who went out partying after I'd already turned in the for the night, and the back of the hostel backed onto a noisy pub. I did make sure that the kit bag rustled quite loudly when I left the room in the morning though.

Made no real difference though. Once you are as well rested as you can be in the nights before that, the actual night/ morning of the marathon itself doesn't really matter. Not stressing about it will be the best you can do, if you are lying there awake and getting mad about the noise through the night then that will affect your run.

tomred1N

Any sign of the postman with the numbers etc across the pond ? 😀

robinph

Nope, not yet.

Even if they were in the post already I've been getting automated emails from Royal Mail the last few days saying that they are basically not promising to do anything, and some posties that I know have been posting on FB that they are jus all hiding in the sorting offices.

Anyone who got in through the international ballot will probably get the email before the magazines get delivered now.

innuendo141

Was supposed to do Kinvarra Half as part of my plan tomorrow. Plan has taken a knock now the last 2 days. Hopefully will be able to manage the long run on Sunday.

Hope no one took any falls over the weather!

robinph

This seems to be a threat every year and will hopefully not be an issue when it comes to it, but a story to keep an eye on with the DLR staff threatening to strike over marathon weekend:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/talks-planned-in-bid-to-prevent-dlr-strike-during-london-marathon-a3788201.html

If it were to kick off then it probably won't be an issue for most here as I'm guessing the DLR won't be on your race day transportation options anyway, but might be an issue for getting to the Expo on the days before.

innuendo141

robinph wrote: »

This seems to be a threat every year and will hopefully not be an issue when it comes to it, but a story to keep an eye on with the DLR staff threatening to strike over marathon weekend:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/talks-planned-in-bid-to-prevent-dlr-strike-during-london-marathon-a3788201.html

If it were to kick off then it probably won't be an issue for most here as I'm guessing the DLR won't be on your race day transportation options anyway, but might be an issue for getting to the Expo on the days before.

Lovely. Staying in Brixton myself because I'm used to a place there. No tube would certainly impact myself anyway!

Edit: Read the article. Its the DRL not the Tube. Oops.

robinph

You will need the DLR for getting to/ from the Expo and London City airport or if you are staying somewhere around that area then you'll need it for getting to the start as well.

Anyone staying in the centre of the city will be using overground trains to get to the start so shouldn't be affected on race day.

innuendo141

robinph wrote: »

You will need the DLR for getting to/ from the Expo and London City airport or if you are staying somewhere around that area then you'll need it for getting to the start as well.

Anyone staying in the centre of the city will be using overground trains to get to the start so shouldn't be affected on race day.

Ah you're right, cheers for the heads up. Here's hoping.

Djoucer

Couple of questions for this year's race.

What's the best airport (and time) to fly into with view of arriving on the Saturday and heading straight expo? Presume city?

Best place to meet ppl afterwards? Presume most tubes run on the day?

What time should arrive at start line for GFAs?

Cheers folks. Not long now!

robinph

Simplest for the Expo would be London City.

Coal Hole on The Strand will almost certainly be where we aim for afterwards. It's staggering distance from the finish.

Other than the potential for a DLR strike, see above which might affect getting to the Expo or City airport, all tubes will be running as per normal on marathon day. You won't need a ticket to get to the start, once you are wearing your number. You will need a ticket afterwards though for getting about.

Depending on where you are going from on the morning of race day might have an effect on how stressful it is to get there. The trains will be very, very, very busy but I've normally headed to Charring Cross and got on a train by 8am which then gets you to the fast GFA start in loads of time. When getting there though you should pay attention to exactly which bit of the various starts you are aiming for. I assume that you'll be fast GFA in which case don't get mixed up with the other people going to the Red start. It's all explained well in the information magazine you'll get at the expo, but here is a map of the start zones:
http://london-marathon.s3.amazonaws.com/vmlm2014/live/uploads/cms_page_media/385/The%20Start.pdf

The final runner information will appear in PDF format online in the next week or so I expect.

innuendo141

The National Rail is separate from the DLR so it would seem that will be running on the day. There should be National Rail trains going to Blackheath Station (one of the GFA starts). I could be wrong though someone might be able to correct me!

rainbow kirby

Nope, that's correct. Charing Cross to Blackheath for blue start last year anyway.

robinph

innuendo141 wrote: »

The National Rail is separate from the DLR so it would seem that will be running on the day. There should be National Rail trains going to Blackheath Station (one of the GFA starts). I could be wrong though someone might be able to correct me!

If going to Blackheath then you'll be using the overground trains and they are not going to be effected.
If going to the Red start, but not FastGFA start, then you may be making use of DLR, especially if your hotel is over in the docklands area near the Expo and City airport.

Everyone from here should be going to Blackheath I'd expect as we are all going to be ballot/ fastGFA/ GFA. But getting there from docklands area would be tricky so probably just aim for Greenwich in that case and walk.

robinph

Been wondering when the registration forms are going to start dropping on doormats over here as my Facebook memories page seems to suggest that it's been right about now all previous years. It would appear from the website though that this time they are not posting out the paper registration forms and they will all be sent by email instead.

Should hopefully make things simpler for those of you who have "moved countries" since registration, so keep an eye on your email inbox over the next week or so.

neilc

robinph wrote: »

Been wondering when the registration forms are going to start dropping on doormats over here as my Facebook memories page seems to suggest that it's been right about now all previous years. It would appear from the website though that this time they are not posting out the paper registration forms and they will all be sent by email instead.

Should hopefully make things simpler for those of you who have "moved countries" since registration, so keep an eye on your email inbox over the next week or so.

Got a message to say I got postage a few days ago! Can’t confirm until the weekend if the registration is included as I haven’t been ‘home’ yet .

ClashCityRocker

I was a bit taken aback when i saw that the queen was announced as the official race starter. Turns out she's not joining us in Greenwich though, she's starting it from the grounds of Windsor castle :pac: Presume they'll have screens so we get a royal wave etc

robinph

Would be a bit more hassle to get her to and from the start at Greenwich than the normal visits from number 2 and 5 in line. The will be sticking it on screens at Greenwich though, but it's a minor issue compared to when they started it from the ISS.

Glencarraig

neilc wrote: »

Got a message to say I got postage a few days ago! Can’t confirm until the weekend if the registration is included as I haven’t been ‘home’ yet .

According to the runners info on the VMLM website the "final instructions" are coming by email and not through the post.

Registering for the Virgin Money London Marathon
Part 1 - The registration form
You will receive your registration form via email by early April with your Virgin Money London Marathon Final Instructions.

You need to bring your registration form with you to the Virgin Money London Marathon Expo along with your Photo identification (see details in Part 2) in order to collect your runner number, timing tag and kitbag (see below for more info).