My good friend and fellow Nike+ challenger Derek, who currently averages 80 miles per month, applied to run in this year’s Flora 2008 London Marathon. I was surprised to learn that Derek was turned down and would not be allowed to participate this year. “You keep winning the Nike+ challenges; you’re too good for us,” they said. I’m kidding about that quote of course, but I’m not joking about the decision.

It did not even cross my mind that runners had to apply to enter. I’m so used to running in fairly small local events that I thought runners just paid their money to register, and then show up on the day of the race. Not so for the London Marathon! I was quite shocked by this realization.

I have fond memories of watching the London Marathon each year on TV, as it is always shown live each April by the BBC on a Sunday morning. It’s a national, televised event that raises a lot of money for charity, most notably by a large number of runners who wear wacky and colorful costumes, competing not only to complete 26.2 miles, but also to see who can get on TV. So if “Wacky Steve” from Liverpool, dressed as a giant, yellow banana can be allowed to run the London Marathon in eight hours, surely the race organizers should let Derek from Birmingham, with a likely 4 hour 30 minute finish time, take part. Think again.

According to Derek, there are several ways that can increase one’s chance of getting accepted to run in the London Marathon:

• You can run 26.2 miles in less than 3 hours (i.e. you are basically a pro)
• You enter via a charity and get tons of sponsorship (probably how all the crazy people in crazy costumes get accepted)
• You are in an unpopular age group (over 50, female age-group for example)

Unfortunately, Derek is in the more popular 30-40 male age group, and because of this, faces a tougher chance of being accepted. Apparently, there is a maximum number of runners allowed into the race, current figures suggest this is approximately 46,500 people. That’s a lot of people, but it’s also going to upset and leave out a lot of people like Derek, who are passionate, more experienced runners with aspirations at competing at the event rather than wanting to appear on TV in a crazy costume.

The most obvious reason for having a maximum number of runners is safety, naturally, followed closely by the capital’s accommodation capacity and amount of race-day traffic that the city can oblige. But should there really be a priority of participants based on gender, age, or even ability to raise money?

To merely apply for the London Marathon (and still not be guaranteed participation), the organizers charge approximately £30 ($55 US Dollars). The application process also encourages applicants (i.e. makes entrants feel guilty!) the option of donating any non-successful application fee to charity. Derek selected this very option by the way. As some form of consolation along with the application rejection letter, Derek received a Flora-branded rain jacket as a thank you for his application. I imagine the $55 donation helped a little too.

There is also a rule that states if a runner unsuccessfully applies for four consecutive years, then the applicant is guaranteed a place for the fifth year. That seems fair on the surface, if one is an optimist, but the realist can’t help but argue that five years is a long time to potentially have to wait in order to run a race. The cynical pessimist meanwhile might argue that it seems like a lot of people are going to end up waiting five years, and five years’ worth of charitable donations from all those people is a lot of money just for the opportunity of running one race!

Derek has promised himself that he will apply again next year and keep improving his running in the meantime. He has not mentioned, at least yet, whether dressing up as a giant, yellow banana is a viable option.