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)
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