I Have 17 More BQs Than I Thought

One of my signature accomplishments as a runner is qualifying for the Boston Marathon in all 50 states.  Qualifying for Boston has always been a standard of excellence, so it’s something I often shoot for, even if I already have a qualifying time that will get me into the race.

At the end of my race reports, I usually list a few statistics.  In my most recent race report, I indicated I had qualified for Boston in 131 races.  I was wrong.  I’ve actually qualified in 148 races.  How could I be off my so much?  To understand that, you need to understand the subtle details of qualifying.

To qualify for the Boston Marathon, you need to finish a marathon within a certain time.  How fast you need to run it depends on your age and gender.  For runners who are over 35, they have different qualifying times for each 5-year age group, but it’s not based on your age on the day you run your qualifying race.  It’s based on how old you’ll be on the day of the Boston Marathon.

Each Boston Marathon has a qualifying period.  It generally starts about one year before registration will open and continues until registration closes.  For example, the registration period for the 2020 Boston Marathon started on September 15, 2018 and continued until the race filled, roughly one year later.

Because of COVID-19, the 2020 Boston Marathon was initially postponed from April until September, and was later cancelled.  Getting into the Boston Marathon isn’t easy.  Some runners get in by running qualifying times.  Others get in by raising money for a charity.  A limited number of foreign entrants can get into the race by buying a travel package from an international tour operator.

Whether you spent years training hard to qualify or raised thousands of dollars of donations, it’s a big commitment.  Naturally, when the race was cancelled, the runners who were signed up hoped that they would get guaranteed entry into the 2021 race.  Unfortunately, the Boston Athletic Association wasn’t in any position to do that.  They couldn’t know for sure if they would be able to accommodate the same number of runners.  There’s a limit to how many runners you can fit on the narrow two-lane road leading out of Hopkinton, and there’s a limit to how long the various cities and towns along the route will tolerate having the roads closed.  During a pandemic, they might insist on a smaller race.

The BAA gave refunds to everyone who was signed up for 2020 and said the runners who ran qualifying times would be able to use those same qualifying times to register for the 2021 race.  The easiest way to do that was to extend the qualifying period for the 2021 race.  Ordinarily, it would’ve started on September 14, 2019.  Instead, it started on September 15, 2018, which is the same day qualifying for the 2020 race started.  By adding a year to the qualifying period, they effectively allowed people who had already qualified to use those qualifying times again.

The Boston Marathon is normally held on the third Monday in April.  Last September, when registration for 2021 would normally have started, it wasn’t clear if that would be possible.  The BAA postponed registration for 2021.  Later in the year, they announced that the race wouldn’t be held in April.  They promised a follow-up announcement when they chose a new date.  Finally, in January, the made this announcement:

They also made a subtle change to the page on their website that explains how to qualify.  Until a few days ago, it said your age group was based on your age on April 19, 2021.  Now, it says your age group is based on your age on October 11, 2021.  The rule didn’t change.  It’s still based on your age on the day of the race, but that date changed.

As it happens, I’ll be 59 years old on April 19, but I’ll be 60 years old on October 11.  The change in the race date cause me to move into a new age group.  That means instead of needing a time of 3:35 or better to qualify, I just need a time of 3:50 or better.

I’ve kept track of my race results for every marathon or ultramarathon I’ve ever finished.  One thing I keep track of is whether I qualified for Boston in that race.  The qualifying rules have changed many times over the years.  If I say I qualified for Boston, I mean I met the qualifying standards that were in place at the time.  There are lots of races where I beat the qualifying time, but for other reasons it wasn’t a qualifying race.  I don’t count races that didn’t have certified courses, since I couldn’t actually qualify in those races, regardless of how fast I ran.  Likewise, I don’t count races that don’t report race results to the BAA.  There’s also a rule that seems odd to me.  You can’t qualify for Boston in an indoor marathon.

While the qualifying rules can change from year to year, I can’t think of any other cases where they have changed retroactively.  Usually, when you line up for a race, you know if it’s a qualifying race, and you know exactly how fast you need to run to qualify.  Until this year.

Registration for the 2021 Boston Marathon hasn’t started yet.  When it does, I can register using my race result from any race on or after September 15, 2018.  During that span, I ran 75 marathons (excluding ultras).  Excluding races that weren’t qualifying events, there were 17 races where I ran times between 3:35 and 3:50.  At the time I ran them, I didn’t I was fast enough to qualify.  Because I moved into a different age group, I actually did run fast enough to qualify.  Here are my 17 new Boston Qualifiers:

2018 Chicago Marathon (3:47:05)

2018 New York City Marathon (3:48:44)

2019 Surf City Marathon (3:48:02)

2019 Hong Kong Marathon (3:45:17)

2019 Little Rock Marathon (3:43:38)

2019 Carmel Marathon (3:45:09)

2019 Boston Marathon (3:39:20)

2019 Fargo Marathon (3:42:37)

2019 Pocatello Marathon (3:37:38)

2019 Savage Seven, Day 2 (3:46:47)

2019 Savage Seven, Day 3 (3:48:34)

2019 Savage Seven, Day 4 (3:49:33)

2019 Savage Seven, Day 5 (3:46:54)

2020 Surf City Marathon (3:35:28)

2020 Atlanta Marathon (3:41:15)

2020 Xenia Avenue Marathon (3:46:00)

2020 Millennium Meadows Marathon (3:42:27)

In some of these races I was trying to qualify, thinking I needed 3:35, and I was disappointed that I couldn’t do it.  In others, I knew I wouldn’t break 3:35, but I still did the best I could.  That effort made a difference.  I’m tickled pick to know that I qualified for Boston four days in a row at the Savage Seven.  My goal at the time was to break four hours each day, but I put in just enough extra effort that I ended up breaking 3:50.

It's worth noting that there were also races where I would have qualified even if I was still in the 55-59 age group.  When registration for 2021 eventually opens, I'll use my fastest qualifying time, which would've been a BQ anyway.

I moved up on the Mega Marathon List.

There’s a running club in Japan that maintains something called the Mega Marathon List.  It’s a ranking worldwide ranking of the runners who have completed the most marathons and ultramarathons in their lifetimes.

To get onto the list, you need to finish at least 300 marathons.  I qualified for the list in 2015, when I ran my 300th marathon at the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in Tennessee.

Getting on the list was one of my lifetime goals.  Since then, I haven’t paid that much attention to my ranking.  I usually rank somewhere around 500, but that varies from one year to the next.  In addition to the worldwide list, there’s also a North American list.  My ranking on this list is usually close to 100.

From 2013 through 2015, I was running more than 50 marathons a year.  Since then, I’ve cut back.  In some years, I wasn’t running as many marathons as the other runners on this list, so I had no expectation of climbing in the rankings.

The lists are usually updated twice a year, but there wasn’t any midyear update last year.  At the time, nearly all marathons were cancelled, so there didn’t seem to be much point in updating the lists.  Since then, small races have started to come back, but it varies widely, depending on where you live.

I just received a copy of the North American list, which was updated at the end of 2020.  I haven’t seen the worldwide list yet, but I was surprised to learn that I’ve climbed all the way to 68 on the North American list.  That’s up 21 spots from a year ago.  Here’s a link to it, if you’re interested:

http://megamarathonlist.com/

It seems that most of the runners on this list did few, if any, races last year.  I actually ran more races than I planned, mostly because of two multi-day series of races.  Because of that, I expected to move up a few spots, but I was still shocked to move up as much as I did.

I expect 2020 to be an aberration.  I probably won’t move up at all this year.  I only have one race scheduled.  After that, I plan to take a break, so I can heal from a lingering knee injury.  I may yet have a normal race schedule in the second half of the year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t run any other races before the summer.

One thing about this list still amuses me.  Although I moved up quite a bit in the North American rankings, I haven’t moved up at all within my home state.  I still rank 7th in Minnesota.

My Goals for 2021

I was unsure if I should even bother to publish a list of goals for 2021.  Most of my goals tend to focus on races, and I have no idea what races I might do this year.  I usually plan my race schedule several months in advance, but that won’t work in the current environment.  The types of races I usually do aren’t happening right now.  Now that COVID-19 vaccines are available, there’s hope for the second half of the year, but there’s still too much uncertainty to plan anything. 

Last year, I had to adapt.  I looked for opportunities to do small races, but I wouldn’t book anything too far in advance.  My outlook for 2021 can best be described by a line from a George Harrison song: 

 

I don’t know what races I’ll do or what travel opportunities I might have, but I do have a few goals that don’t revolve around races.  I’ll start with those. 

Heal from Injuries 

In August, I injured my right knee at a trail marathon where I fell a few times.  It wasn’t too bad at first, but I think I aggravated it doing weight training.  Before long, I couldn’t go up or down stairs without pain. 

The good news is that nothing was torn.  The bad news is that I was about to start a series of 20 marathons in 20 days.  Amazingly, I made it through that series without making my knee worse.  I did, however, develop new injuries, including Achilles tendonitis in both ankles and an inflamed tendon at the top of my left hamstring. 

When I signed up for the Texas Quad, I assumed I could recover in time.  It was still seven weeks away.  I recovered from the Achilles tendonitis.  The other injuries improved, but they weren’t completely healed. 

After the Texas Quad, I had a new injury.  On the last two days of that series, I felt some discomfort on the outside of my left knee.  Thankfully, the other injuries didn’t get any worse. 

I took it easy for the next two weeks.  Then I ran the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon, which was my final race of the year.  I went all out, so I could get a qualifying time for the 2022 Boston Marathon.  Having done that, I don’t have to worry if I temporarily get out of shape.  I have a good long time before I need to think about qualifying again. 

After the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon, I took a week off from running.  Since then, I’ve been doing easy runs every other day.  My right knee is improving, but I still sometimes notice it walking up and down stairs.  The other injuries are doing much better. 

Because of all these races, my knee hasn’t had sufficient rest to heal.  I only have one race scheduled in 2021.  That’s at the end of January.  I’m not really going to train for that.  I’ll go easy in that race, and then I’ll take a break from racing.  I’ll keep doing easy runs every other day, but nothing long or strenuous.  I’ll take it easy for as long as it takes for my knee to heal.  I won’t enter any races or do any serious training until I’m 100 percent healthy. 

Rebuild My Mileage Base 

In the second half of 2019, I was running at least 50 miles every week.  I maintained a similar mileage base through the first nine months of 2020.  Then my mileage dropped off significantly as I tried to give injuries a chance to heal.  I expect to keep my mileage low for the first few months of 2021.  Once my knee is healthy enough, I’ll want to rebuild my mileage base. 

If experience has taught me anything, it’s that you can’t ramp up too quickly, or it leads to injuries.  The human body can adapt to almost any training load, but it can only adapt so fast.  It may take me until the end of the year to get back to where I was last summer.  I see this year as a rebuilding year.  Hopefully, I’ll establish a good foundation for 2022. 

Get Back to a Lean Weight 

I’ve gained seven pounds since the beginning of October.  That’s not a lot, but I worked hard to lose weight last summer, and I wanted to keep it off. 

I’ve never been able to lose weight through diet alone.  I rely heavily on exercise.  In the short term, I may struggle just to keep from gaining more weight.  Once I’m able to ramp up my training, I hope to lose the weight again. 

Last year, I supplemented my running with cross-training.  From May through August, I was doing two workouts every day.  Usually, one of them was a run, and the other one was either cycling or weight training.  I also went for walks two or three times a day.  I’ll probably do something similar this year, since my running will initially be limited. 

What About Races? 

I currently only have firm plans for one race.  I’m signed up for a marathon in Alabama at the end of January.  I have deferred registration for several races that were cancelled last year, but I don’t know if they’ll go forward this year.  Even if they do, I don’t know if I can travel to them.  Some of them are in countries or regions with travel restrictions. 

Rather than making any firm plans, I have a wish list.  These are races I’d like to run under the right circumstances.  It’s too soon to know which, if any, of these races I’ll run this year.  Some are more likely than others, but none are certain. 

New England Challenge – This is a series of marathons in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.  To complete my 4th and 5th circuits of marathons in every state, I’ll eventually need to do at least one more marathon in five of these states.  This series is in May.  Currently most, if not all, of these states have travel restrictions or quarantine requirements.  This series will only happen if the pandemic is under control by May.  That seems unlikely.  I also don’t know if I’ll recover from my knee injury in time to train for a series like this.  May seems optimistic.  I’d love to do this series if I could, but it’s more likely it’ll have to wait another year. 

Firecracker Triple – This is a series of three marathons in or near Portland, OR.  I’ve done this triple a few times before, winning it in 2011 and again in 2014.  2020 was slated to be the last year for the triple, but it had to be cancelled.  Instead, 2021 will be the final year.  These races are held over the July 4th weekend, so the odds of them happening are better than the New England Challenge. 

Mad Marathon – This is a small race in Vermont.  I was signed up for it last year, but the race was cancelled.  I’m automatically signed up for this year’s race, if it happens.  On one hand, small races are more likely to happen that large races.  On the other hand, Vermont is more restrictive than most states. 

Alaska Series – This is a series of four marathons in Juneau, AK.  I was signed up for this last year.  When it was cancelled, I deferred my registration to this year.  This series isn’t until August, so there’s a better chance that it can happen this year. 

International Races – Last year, I had to cancel my travel plans for marathons in eight countries in Europe or South America.  Six of them were scheduled to take place in April, May, or June.  I doubt if those races will take place this spring.  A few have already announced plans to delay until later in the year.  Even of they take place, I wouldn’t be able to run all of them.  They’re all piled into a span of just a couple months, so scheduling conflicts would make it difficult for me to do more than one or two.  It’s far more likely that I won’t do any of them this year.  International travel is expensive, and overseas flights are unpleasant.  I’m not going to fly overseas for a race unless I can go sightseeing, dine in restaurants, and socialize with friends.  That might not be possible this year. 

Boston Marathon – The Boston Athletic Association has already decided that they can’t hold the race in April.  They’re tentatively planning to hold the race later in the year, but they haven’t picked a date yet.  They need to be reasonably confident that the race can take place.  If not, I’m sure they’ll hold another virtual race.  I will definitely do this race, even if it’s a virtual race.  One way or another, it’ll be my 10th consecutive Boston Marathon finish.  When you have an active streak of at least 10 years, you can register early, which makes it much easier to get into the race. 

New York City Marathon – I was registered for this race in 2020.  When it was cancelled, I was given the choice of a refund or deferred entry to 2021, 2022, or 2023.  I chose to defer my entry.  I don’t know yet which year it will be.  Sometime soon, everyone with deferred entry will have a chance to indicate their preference.  There’s no guarantee I’ll get my first choice.  I’ll just have to wait and see. 

Minnesota races – In Minnesota, there aren’t any outdoor marathons before the last weekend of April.  By then I might be ready to start looking for races.  Until the pandemic is over, local races are preferable to races that involve travel.  I love to travel, but it forces you to come into contact with more people.  When I traveled to races last year, I spent most of the time in my hotel room, leaving only for the races and to get food.