The lottery for the Marine Corps Marathon opened last week and has 2 days left to sign up for. Here are the details for this huge marathon.
2 Days Left To Enter Marine Corps Marathon Lottery
This year’s Marine Corps Marathon will take place on Sunday, October 30. Here are the details:
- Lottery entry open through March 30
- Registration cost: $135
- Notification to selected runners will occur starting March 31
- Runners only pay if entry accepted – but you must enter all of your payment information as you register
- lottery registration link
I ran the Marine Corps Marathon course for my last marathon run of my 6 marathon runs / 6 continents / 5 day event and it was a fantastic course! While I have never run the actual Marine Corps Marathon, being able to enjoy most of the route was very special, especially ending at the Marine Corps Memorial. I can only imagine how incredible it is to do it on race day with all of the fanfare!
How To Guarantee Entry For The 2016 Marine Corps Marathon
The Marine Corps Marathon does offer a VIP package that guarantees entry to the marathon as well as a second entry or a 10K entry. It also includes a 2 night stay at the host hotel, the Gaylord National hotel. It is a Marriott property that goes for $310 the weekend before so this is worth at least $620 (more considering it is race weekend).
The 2 race entries are worth a total of $270 (unless you choose the second entry for the MCM10K). The package includes 2 pasta dinners and breakfast passes. It also has VIP benefits that do not have a dollar value to them.
Enjoy the ease and attention that comes with being a VIP throughout MCM Weekend. No waiting in lines! Runners will enjoy fast pass admission to Packet Pick-up at the Health & Fitness Expo on October 28-29, 2016 at the Gaylord National Resort. On the morning of the MCM, VIPs will be transported in a ‘VIP Runners-Only” luxury shuttle directly to Runners Village, where a VIP Welcome Tent awaits with refreshments, private port-a-potties and more appealing amenities.
The cost for all of this? It will cost $1,500 for this guaranteed VIP package. When you add up the things you can figure the cost on, it would come to about $980 so you are paying about $520 for the VIP access and the ease of getting in the race without having to see if you are picked in the lottery. I would not go for this but it will work for some people.
Summary
If you have any desire to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon, better do it soon! Hopefully, you will get picked. Either way, I will give some hotel suggestions this week as well that you should book before the confirmed entries go out!
I’ve gotten to do so many awesome things since I began following all the information found on several blogs. So a few days ago when you mentioned this lottery, I thought wow that would be so cool. I have such a respect for runners, ever since I trained to pass the Sheriff Dept physical test (took me 2 months of training to pass the 1.5 mile in 13 minutes) That was 4 years ago. I haven’t run since. All the traveling I have done this last 2 years has easily added 15 lbs and at 49 its hard to shake. So today I got the e-mail, I’m in. What!?
I’m writing and hoping you will post some guidance to this race, or for new runners in general.
Thank you for this post. Without it I would never have known about the lottery.
That is great, Julie! You should have a great time! Yes, I am going to do a couple of posts about this race in the next couple/few weeks. Though I have not run the race, I have run the course and it was really great. I am working on some series of posts for new marathon runners as well so hopefully will be able to get it up soon!
I will also have a hotel post up soon about the best properties to stay at and finish 2 of my reviews for hotels in DC. BTW, if you are looking for a good training guide, the Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer is an excellent book. It is laid out with some great reading and simple plans. It is the book I used for my first marathon!