Incredibly, the Virgin London Marathon has already reached the maximum limit for it's 2010 entry lottery just three days after the 2009 race was completed. Race director Dave Bedford reported that 120,000 runners had been accepted into the entry pool from which the actual race entrants will later be drawn.
"After the success of last Sunday's race and the beginning of a new dawn with Virgin we were expecting a massive response for next year’s race, but even we were surprised by such a fantastic reaction to the opening of the entry ballot," Bedford commented through a news release.
The response was so strong that the website had to be temporarily closed because the event's servers became overwhelmed. Bedford said that shouldn't pose a problem for all of those who hoped to enter the race.
"As we run a ballot and don't allocate spaces on a first come first served basis, no-one will be disadvantaged because of the temporary issue on Monday," he said. "We do of course apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank people for their patience."
Last Sunday's London Marathon, the last edition of the race to be sponsored by British food company Flora, had 36,156 entrants, 35,747 starters, and 35,306 finishers; all were race records. Next year will be the first for new sponsor, Virgin Money.
Know someone else who's interested in running and triathlon?
