Wednesday, February 16, 2011

New BQ Times

New qualifying times and system for the Boston Marathon.

* Every standard is 5 minutes faster, starting in 2013.
* "On the first two days, only runners who have bested the qualifying time by at least 20 minutes will be allowed to apply. On days three and four, those who have beaten it by 10 minutes can apply. On day five, five minutes." (Then everybody else with a qualifying time)

Time chart on BAA website.

***

Likely to be some complaints (doesn't address disparities between specific groups), but it goes toward fixing what seemed like a broken system this year. It's also neat to think about how it will spread out bubbles of runners (young men and women at 3:10 and 3:40, respectively) at other races, as runners work hard towards 5 and 10-minute buffers.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the info Mike. Are you planning on running Boston in '12 or '13? I went in '06 and had a bad race. I think I'd like to go back, but now it looks like I'll have to really work for a earlier entry qualifying time.

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  2. Alex, I think you'll get a fine time in Fort Collins in May! And you already got a chance to go and hopefully still had good memories.
    I had a fun, memorable time there right after my 30th birthday (in April, obviously), so I didn't think it could ever be quite the same if I went soon. If anything, I thought it would be cool to go back years later for a 40th or 50th birthday...or even better if I had a child/nephew/niece/whatever that were interested in the future.

    Good luck in Moab!

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