Coming from England, the London Marathon has always been a bucket list race for me. Unfortunately, even though I am English, and I have a British passport, it is not an easy race for me to get into.

If I lived in England, I would have a chance of trying to get into the race via a qualifying time.  These ‘Good For Age’ entries, operate like entries for the Boston Marathon.  The qualifying time for my age group is 3 hours and forty-five minutes, which is within reach for me. Sadly however, the ‘Good For Age’ entries are only available for residents of the United Kingdom.

Living in the USA, pretty much my only option (besides a very, very expensive package tour slot), is to enter the International ballot.  This ballot process is a completely random draw for entries, but due to the number of ballot entries, the odds of winning are very low. 

The organization keeps their numbers somewhat secret, but typically there are just under half a million ballot entries, for what are believed to be about 17,000 slots.  These numbers cover both UK and International ballots and it is suspected that the process favors UK entries.

Even though the odds are against me, it is still worth trying to get into this bucket list race for me.  I’m officially in the ballot, so keep your fingers crossed for me.