Tracksmith BQ Qualifier Singlet Being Attacked

Running a BQ time and registering for the race are different things. No one is disputing this.

This really isn't particularly difficult to understand.

There is only one qualifying standard. The cutoff is applied after the fact and varies by year according to the number of QUALIFIERS who apply, the number of time qualifier positions available and other field size constraints.

Whether you deem the BQ standards slow or not or have your own personal more exclusionary definition is irrelevant.

The B.A.A. itself refers to all applicants as "qualifiers," not "provisional qualifiers," not any other term except Qualifier, denoting someone who has met their objective standard in a given year

Basic reading comprehension is apparently sorely lacking on LetsRun

baa.org

Qualify | Boston Athletic Association

Open link

"In recent years, not all qualifiers who submit an entry have been accepted due to field size restrictions.
If the total amount of submissions surpasses the allotted field size for qualified athletes, then those who are the fastest among the pool of applicants in their age and gender group will be accepted."

Gotta do a better job trolling, bud

Correction: He TRIED to pull a woman running the marathon illegally (women were banned in 1967) off the course but instead got his own @ss thrown off the course by her hammer thrower/football player boyfriend.

He had every right to disqualify her from the results as an illegal entrant but went too far by physically trying to remove her. Maybe he was trying to save her life. After all, some doctors thought it was dangerous for women to run marathons at the time; their uteruses might fall out!

As for the quote, well, it is attributed to Jock Semple so if they use it, he should get credit. Just because someone is not as pure as virgin snow doesn't mean they can't say meaningful things. I wonder what historical figure made the following great quote: "Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep."

It lets you submit an entry but doesn't guarantee you a spot. The very definition of a provisional standard.

Crazy how over the top PC people have become. 20 years ago this would never have even been an issue.

Wrong yet again.

"Provisional" standard implies that if you do not meet the cutoff, then you have somehow no longer met the standard or qualified.

If you do not meet the cutoff, you are unable to register for the race due to field size limitations. However, you have still met the qualifying standard posted on the B.A.A. website, and you are still referred to as a "qualifier" in all of their official correspondence.

There is no "provisional" standard. If you BQ, you BQ'd, you are a Boston qualifier. Then it's just a question of how many other qualifiers there are and if there will be room for everyone.

Once again, basic reading comprehension guys.

baa.org

Qualify | Boston Athletic Association

Open link

Counterpoint: I put in no effort and qualified.

Qualifier to apply, means nothin. It’s branding. Nuance is difficult

I don’t get why everyone cares about Boston. I qualified for it in my second ever marathon (2:54) and I never had any desire to go run it. Seems like a bunch of overhyped nonsense to me.

Also, get off my lawn.

Tracksmith has this exact Boston singlet every single year, and anyone who wants it can buy one when it comes out in the spring. You'll actually see a lot of people wearing them in the race, and very few wearing the "BQ" singlet.

The BQ singlet is kind of like a letter jacket. People like you who can't have them really covet them. But once anyone gets one, they quickly realize there's nowhere they can wear it without looking like a total douche.

Regardless of what the BAA says, the word qualify has a meaning: “to be entitled to a particular benefit or privilege by fulfilling a necessary condition.” Obviously, according to the dictionary meaning of qualify, these people weren’t really qualified for Boston if they’re not entitled to the privilege of being allowed to race Boston.

Although I guess you could say they qualified to register, but not for the marathon itself.

I almost upvoted this, then I realised, that I bought a Boston Marathon singlet last year even though I didn’t plan on running it. I qualified, registered and was accepted. But then I opted for London instead (also bought a London one). Anyway, I do exist. Hi.

But you aren’t who he described because you were accepted.

Tracksmith sells tons of items every year that are Boston branded and available to anyone who wants to buy them. They also sell a “BQ” singlet every year that every year is available only to people who have qualified and registered for the race. There is nothing different about the BQ singlet (other than the design) this year, and it is no more exclusive this year than it has ever been.

This is actually very good for the brand

They haven't that much... in face to face interactions people don't generally behave like this at the risk of being ridiculed or ignored. But online everyone can be a baby, a bully or whatever persona and there are no consequences. And to viewers this cr@p online gives a false perception that the PC issue is much worse than it actually is.

I wish that was true. The only thing stopping it from being completely true might be the severe social anxiety that Gen Z -- the largest group among the oh-too-precious permanently-offended brigade -- seems to suffer from in an epidemic way. Not being able to speak up saves people from some wokescolding, I'd imagine. But go to any college campus: the kids that don't have social anxiety and are able to be confidently wrong out loud, act exactly like these insta commenters, in real life. You say they don't do this at the risk of being ridiculed, but it's just the opposite, most people are afraid to clap back at the wokescolds because they've seen how the brigade can turn on a person and wreck their lives.

So Tracksmith got all the people who ran BQ times but weren't accepted into the race boiling mad at them because they made a BQ singlet but to buy it you had to have run a BQ time AND be registered for the race. (The charity runners were also mad because they were like, I'm running the race I should be able to wear your shirt). They then quoted Jock Semple saying Boston isn't a jogging race, and in doing so that people who didn't get accepted this year were mere hobby joggers. There was a long Instagram thread where many people trashed them for not being inclusive and for being elitist running snobs.

Tracksmith then decided to post an apology on Instagram, and delete the original post. The apology can be found here:

This managed to piss EVERYONE off. The people who liked the singlet are like, "so what I worked hard and ran the time and registered for the race, I should be able to buy something special but now I can't because of all the people who complained."

And the people who complained are mad because by deleting the original post they deleted all their comments taking them to task for what they said on the original post. Now they feel silenced. The result is now the people who complained are reposting all their criticisms on the apology thread, and the people who met the original terms are criticizing them for apologizing.

It's quite the train wreck of PR. I guess Tracksmith decided to take the approach of, "If we are digging a giant hole for ourselves, we should make it bigger." Anyway, I don't really care either way, but watching this is entertaining.

It made me laugh when I saw all the hobbyjoggers complaining about the race being 'elitist'.

Should the olympics be more inclusive to 'fat bodies' and allow anyone to enter?