Until a few years ago you could take your time signing up. Today, for many European races, you have to enter a ballot, or move months in advance to beat the sell-out or the next price increase. It changes the way you build a season: a race is no longer a decision, it’s a project with several possible scenarios.
What’s changed about entries
The ballot is no longer a quirk of the Majors alone. London, New York, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo and Sydney have long allocated a share of their public bibs by draw. Boston remains the exception, with access tied to a qualifying time that often needs to be beaten by a good margin to actually get in.
What’s new is that the model is spreading. From 2027 the Paris marathon and half marathon will also move to a ballot, coinciding with the change of organiser. Valencia introduced a hybrid system in 2026: first a window reserved for runners who took part in the previous edition, then a draw for the remaining bibs. Rotterdam has replaced instant sign-up with a pre-registration process after bibs sold out in two and a half hours in 2025.
The same goes for the half marathons. In the SuperHalfs circuit, Berlin allocates bibs by ballot and Copenhagen has adopted the same system after selling out in two and a half hours. The Generali Prague Half Marathon 2027 attracted more than 70,000 applications. Lisbon, for now, sticks with standard entry.
Then there are the two older mechanisms, still very much alive. The straight sell-out: the Venice Marathon on 25 October closed with 23,000 entrants, a record for the event. And the fixed-date price rise: StraLugano, scheduled for 26 and 27 September, kept its cheapest rate until 14 September. Three different logics, but for anyone planning ahead the result is identical: deciding late costs you, either in money or in a missed bib.
A three-tier calendar: plans A, B and C
The practical consequence is that you can no longer build a season around a single race. You need a primary target and two alternatives already identified before you know the ballot result.
- Plan A: the race you really want. Ballot, qualifying time or rapid sell-out. Low odds, or high pressure on the entry opening date.
- Plan B: a race over the same distance, in the same calendar window (roughly within two or three weeks of plan A), with standard entry and bibs still available.
- Plan C: a race close to home, Italian if need be, with entries open right up to race week. It’s your safety net, so you don’t throw away three months of work.
The rule I use with my athletes is simple: plan B should be chosen at the same moment as plan A, not after the disappointment of the draw. Because by the time the rejection email arrives, the best alternatives are usually either more expensive or already closed.
Watch out for one point that often gets overlooked: plan A and plan B need to be compatible in type of race, not just in date. If your goal is a time, don’t line up an alternative with 400 metres of positive elevation gain. If the goal is the experience, the criteria change.
How it fits with your training
This is where the real technical problem lies. A ballot sometimes gives you the outcome six or eight months before race day, sometimes far less. If you wait for confirmation before starting work, you’re already behind.
The answer isn’t to train as though you were running three marathons. It’s to work in phases, where the early ones are identical regardless of the race.
- General phase (8-12 weeks): building volume, progressive long runs, threshold work. The same for any marathon, in any city. You can do it without even knowing where you’ll be racing.
- Specific phase (8-10 weeks): this is where race pace comes in, long runs with marathon-pace sections and the demands of the course. You need to know the date and, ideally, the elevation profile.
- Taper (2-3 weeks): depends on the exact date.
These are broad guidelines, to be adapted to your history, the loads you habitually handle and how long it’s been since your last key race. A runner with ten marathons behind them and someone heading into their second don’t need the same length of general phase.
The advantage of the phased model is that it pushes the critical decision further down the line. If the ballot goes against you three months out, you’re still in the general phase and you can redirect the work towards another date without losing a thing. If it goes against you six weeks out, you’ve got a problem.
One thing to avoid: entering two marathons three weeks apart “just in case”, with the idea of racing both hard. It doesn’t work. If you end up with two bibs, pick the one that matters and use the other as a controlled long run, or simply don’t turn up.
The financial side, no illusions
Ballot applications usually carry a fee, and it isn’t always refundable. Entry fees rise in tiers: enter early and you pay less, as the StraLugano case shows with its 14 September deadline. Flights and accommodation follow the same curve, often more steeply.
A few practical rules I’d offer:
- Budget for the cost of multiple applications up front. If you enter three ballots and win one, you’ve still paid for three.
- Don’t book flights and hotels before the ballot result, unless the accommodation is free to cancel. It’s the first mistake I see people make.
- If a race really matters to you and there’s a guaranteed-entry route, consider it. It costs more, but it removes the uncertainty from your planning, and that has a price of its own.
- Put the entry opening dates in your diary, not the race dates. Those are the ones that decide whether you run.
One last thought: the races that sell out in two hours or go to a ballot aren’t automatically the best ones for you. They’re the most in demand. Those are two different things. There are European marathons with excellent courses, solid organisation and entries open for months. It’s worth looking at them before resigning yourself to chasing the same five cities forever.
In practice
- Build your calendar backwards, starting from the entry opening date rather than the race date. Put it all in your diary with a reminder a week beforehand.
- Choose plans A, B and C together, in the same afternoon. Same distance, a window of two or three weeks, an elevation profile compatible with your goal.
- Set your training up in phases: 8-12 weeks of general work that holds good for any race, then 8-10 specific weeks once the bib is confirmed. These are indicative figures, to be tuned to your level.
- Don’t book travel and accommodation before the ballot result, unless cancellation is free. And budget for the applications that won’t come off.
- One goal per cycle. If you end up with two bibs close together, decide straight away which one you race hard and use the other as training.
Anyone preparing for a marathon abroad who wants to take the logistical weight off their shoulders can lean on someone who sorts out the travel and the bib, but choosing the dates is still down to them: nobody can do that part for you.
Sources: Runner’s World Italia – Not just marathons: is the lottery the future of road racing?; Runner’s World Italia – Venice Marathon: the charity award ‘Alex Zanardi’ is born; Podisti.net – StraLugano 2026: watch out for the 14 September price change.
