2019 Boston Marathon 4:52 cut off; qualifying standard dropped 5 minutes for 2020

balsdorf

https://www.baa.org/2019-boston-marathon-qualifier-acceptances

I just squeaked in by 12 seconds

Granpa Chook

I like that they are upping the standards. You had to be a pretty solid runner back in the day to get in.

https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/enter/qualify/history-qualifying-times

wchevron

Damn,
I thought you meant I could run a 4:52 to qualify.

KenElPescadoPelado

Granpa Chook said:

I like that they are upping the standards. You had to be a pretty solid runner back in the day to get in.

https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/enter/qualify/history-qualifying-times

Matt

Yes! Back to the tougher standards.

Granpa Chook

Most of the standards need reworking, especially the 18-34. 3:00 and 3:30 is pretty easy for a 20-25 year old. The 30 min difference is not great either. It isn't a performance benchmark though, I need to remember that. I think it's more of a reflection of popularity and applications numbers than gender or age-graded performances. 7000 people were turned away, so maybe that just means 7000 people are a little better at running then we were in the 1990-2010 era. Or maybe it's downhill courses helping people qualify.

There was a study after they changed the times in 2013 https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-sports-analytics/jsa0003 Affected men qualification more than women.

Zach Miller

I have actually had several lady friends tell me they think the 3:00 standard is harder then the 3:30 standard.

I really don't know which is harder but glad they made it harder, I think they should make the standards even faster too. Make it even harder and make it more exclusive, a real battle to get in more for more people.

Breaking down the standard too for younger people should be done. 18-29 maybe and 30-34 maybe.

KenElPescadoPelado

Welp, after all that back & forth, and postponing it to September, Boston 2020 is officially off. Thanks @MamaCheetah for bringing this to our attention, better luck next year!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/sports/boston-marathon-canceled.html?smid=fb-share