Qualifying for the Boston Marathon – the Day That Changed It All
October 18, 2010
For those seeking to qualify for the Boston Marathon, October 18, 2010 is a truly significant date. It was a day that took many by surprise. It was a day that no one truly expected. It was the day that the Boston Marathon sold out in a record eight hours.
I vividly remember this day. It began with the BAA website being overwhelmed, so much that it crashed and left many people unable to initially register.
To be completely honest, I don’t even recall why I even decided to sign up on the opening day of registration. In years past, specifically for the 2007 – 2009 Boston Marathons, I had always waited until the prior December to register. I just never felt any kind of pressure to get in early, even though registration had typically been open for a few months by the time I signed up. For the 2010 Boston Marathon, I decided to do things a bit early. This meant registering on Oct. 21, despite registration being open since Sept. 9. (In case you are wondering, I still actually have all acceptance emails dating back to 2006). In short, prior to Oct. 18, if you had qualified for Boston, there was no “race to register’’; it was simply about making sure you did so in a somewhat timely manner.
One could argue the fact that registration for the 2010 Boston Marathon closed out on Nov. 13, 2009 may have caused some urgency when it came to the fall of 2010. However, while it did happen more quickly than in past years, it still took two full months! Therefore, the sudden interest in registering for the 2011 race in the fall of 2010 seems to defy logic, at least to me.
Yet, there I was at my computer still trying to register on opening day. However, after failing to do so, I remember deciding that I’d just wait until another day when traffic was lighter and I’d be able to easily register. At this point I’d been through this drill nine times prior and never had an issue, so I thought to myself, ‘why should it be any different this time around?’
Yet as the morning progressed I started to see posts on both Facebook and Twitter that this year was different. Registration was progressing faster than anyone had anticipated, and the reason for the website issues was the number of runners trying to register simultaneously. This got me concerned, and just after 1 p.m. I decided to go back to the BAA site, which by this time was working just fine. At 1:10 p.m. I received an email stating that my entry had been received.
I was one of the lucky ones that day. Many runners ended up being shut out, and my guess is they had registered in prior years and did not have a sense of urgency, as it wasn’t needed previously. Or they had been told that as long as they had a qualifying time, they were good to go. While this all may have been true before, on Oct. 18, it was a completely different reality as registration closed out at 5:03pm.
This left many runners frustrated. Many folks who had worked hard to qualify now found themselves without a slot. It was also clear this was something very new for the BAA, as not even they had anticipated the sellout and that so many Boston Qualifiers would rush to register. This point was further accentuated by race director Dave McGillivray who following that day was quoted as saying: “I was getting e-mails from some people that night saying, ‘Wow, you must be thrilled. A sellout in eight hours.’ Thrilled? I was hiding under my bed.’’
Therefore, it was clear after Oct. 18, that change would be needed. While the existing process had worked well, there was a new air surrounding qualifying and registering for Boston. So what changed as a result of this day, and what has its impact been?
A New Registration Process: Tiered Qualification and Rolling Admission Schedule
On Feb. 16, 2011 the BAA announced that for the 2012 Boston Marathon they would introduce a new tiered registration process to let the fastest qualifiers register first, rather than let all qualified runners, regardless of their qualifying time, register on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore those who had met their qualifying standards for their age by 20 minutes were allowed to register first, then a second wave of runners who were able to meet their standards by 10 minutes were next. Then, if spots remained, those who met their standards by five minutes could register in a third wave. Finally, if there were still spots remaining, all those who had met the standard could register. This process is still with us to this very day.
New Qualifying Times
In the very same press release, the BAA also announced that for the 2013 Boston Marathon qualifying times for all age groups would be reduced by five minutes. This meant that men 18 – 34, who previously had to run a 3:10:00 to qualify, now had to run a 3:05:00. To the uninitiated, five minutes might not seem like much, but I can tell you through personal experience it can make a huge difference. In fact, some of my earlier qualifying runs would not have been qualifiers under the current standards. Recently I’ve run races – such as Chicago in 2013 – where I failed to qualify, but under the old terms I would have qualified. (I ran a 3:18:00). These qualifying standards are still with us today.
Just Qualifying Is No Longer Considered Good Enough
Ask any runner who has qualified for Boston and in most cases you will get a story that involves years of hard work, a lot of training and most likely, many failed attempts. Therefore, when one qualifies for the Boston Marathon, it is a feat to be celebrated. However, one of the unintended consequences of the new qualification system is its creation of a “qualifier no-man’s land’’. What I mean here is that in recent years there have been groups of runners who by the BAA’s standards have qualified, but have not done so with a fast enough time to obtain entry into the race. For the 2015 race this mean those who had qualified, but had met the standard by less than one minute and two seconds, were denied entry. According to the BAA, this happened to 1,947 applicants last fall. For the 2014 race, the cut off was one minute and thirty eight seconds, and as a result 2,976 Boston Qualifiers were not able to run. Therefore, in today’s environment while obtaining a qualifying time certainly does enable runners to say that they were good enough, it unfortunately is no longer a guarantee they get to run the actual race.
The Streaker Exemption
No, this is not about making sure that the likes of Will Ferrell’s character “Frank the Tank’’ from Old School get a number, rather its about ensuring those who have an active streak of 10 or more consecutive Boston Marathon completions are able to run. However, the key to this exemption is they must all be Boston Qualifiers and in order to register, they need to do so with a qualifying time. This is a very small group: for the 2015 marathon, it was comprised of 356 runners. However, what the BAA does afford this group is the opportunity to preregister before anyone else. They also waive the tiered qualification schedule, so as long as runners have a qualifying time by registration, they’re good to go. It’s clear the BAA recognizes this group’s accomplishments and has exempted them from some of the processes that have stymied other runners.
The End of the Two Year Qualifier
Prior to the events of Oct. 18, one of the great things about Boston was that if you ran a qualifying time after Oct. 1st of that year, you could use that time for the Boston Marathon in the coming year, as well as for the marathon in the year that followed. In short, running a qualifying time after Oct. 1 was a pretty much a guaranteed entry for two Boston’s. But in order for this to work, runners had to register for the immediate year’s race after Oct. 1, which was not an issue before 2010. While this tactic could have been deployed for the 2011 and 2012 races, based on how things work today, it’s really not an option.
The BAA currently states that for the 2016 Boston Marathon, qualifying times must be run on or after Sept. 13, 2014, and most phases of registration for the 2015 marathon required completion by Sept. 12. The only exception would be running a qualifying race in the two days prior to Monday, Sept. 15, which was when registration opened to all remaining qualifiers who had met the qualifying standard, if space remained. Therefore, while it’s possible to slip under the wire with a two-year qualifier, it’s a pretty unlikely scenario. It’s safe to say thecurrent registration process for qualified runners has all but eliminated what used to be an effective way to extend and leverage the value of a qualifying run.
When it comes to qualifying for Boston, it’s clear that no single day has had a larger impact on it than Oct. 18, 2010 and while there may be mixed feelings and emotions about the changes this day brought forth, it’s clear to me that they are here to stay. However more importantly they are also a sign that despite the Boston Marathon being steeped in history and tradition, it’s not afraid to evolve to stay relevant. We must applaud the BAA for not only respecting the history and tradition of the Boston Marathon, but for also recognizing the realities of today to ensure an even a better race for tomorrow.
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