Boston Marathon Debate

What to do:

Determine how many participants you can have (excluding elite invites and charity spots if you must).

Have a registration deadline. Make the registration window 30 days or whatever.

Take the top age/gender graded entry times to fulfill the participation maximum. Maybe 3:10 gets you in...maybe it doesn't. Depends on the year.

Streaks are for joggers.

You are especial

Tell me what would happen if you staggered qualifying entries?

As in the first 48hrs only sub 2:40 guys can register.

Second 48hrs sub 2:50.

Then open up to normal standards minus 10min. The best runners get in including the non-elites.

Let the free market determine all the other entries.

I hate seeing an event like that turn into a freak show. Perhaps raise the amount charity runners have to raise to get an entry? Perhaps base the amount on how slow they are running? "Oh you want to run a 5hr marathon ok thats $20,000!!"

Basic supply and demand either raise the standards or raise the prices.

Looking at my local marathon, @100 males (regardless of age group) ran under 3 hrs. @90 ran under 3:10 but over 3 hrs. Only 50 beat 2:50. Thus, the risk of overshooting the standard is very high for a race that has a very big budget (buses driving 26 mi, police doing traffic control on a state holiday, etc.).

The charity runners are a bridge to corporate sponsorship. Many of the large charity groups are connected at the hip to corporate sponsors. Kick out the charity runners and you will piss off corporate underwriters.

The best way to go is to have a guaranteed first tier and a lottery second tier. If you can go 10-15 min under the current standard, you get a guaranteed entry if you register by a certain date (a la NYC). Everyone else who meets the current qualifying standard will have to enter a lottery.

d2xccoach wrote:

If they made it "20 years" how many runners would we be talking about, maybe a couple hundred? In the big picture that's immaterial.

Said like a true auditor.

Adjust qualifying times so that the new qualifying time is the average time of the last three years for the 75% person qualifying time for each age group. For example, if the qualifying time is now 3:10 and 75% of the people who qualified in that age group qualified by running 3:05, the new qualifying time would be 3:05.

Have the registration open in October. In January have a two week window for people who registered a time to return their entry for a partial refund. If there are people who have run the new faster qualifying time and want to enter but couldn’t because the race filled up, those spots go to the new qualified runners. If there are still some spots open, run a lottery of people who have run the current (old) qualifying standards.

I think they will likely say you can use a qualifying time only one year at Boston. This makes sense to me.

This ensures

1) The race fills up.

2) It decreases the number of no shows.

3) The faster runners will likely get in.

4) People know what they have to do to get in and for almost everyone (computer connection over a short period is not the dual criteria to enter), they will know the day of their marathon if they qualified or not.

The order of these three things is not of importance.

Have 2 qualifying standards, an (A) and a (B) .Registration for the (A) would open 1 month early to allow the (A ) runners first chance. Then fill the rest of the field with the (B) qualifyers. Also just make the open (A standard under 3 for men under 40. It used to be running Boston meant something, nowadays everyone can run Boston.

Sorry, meant to say that the (A) standard would be tougher than the (B) standard in all age groups.

You people remind me of the BCS playoff fantasy morons.

Does anyone read the thread or do they just go to the end and plop down their opinion? For example, about 8 different people have suggested earlier registration periods for faster people.

The problem with that solution is that one of the things the race director wants to do is to have people know if they qualified to run Boston on the day of their race.

I like that "pay for play" for charities mentioned above. Say $1000 for every 10 minutes over BQ and I think charity folks should have to have completed a marathon before. So if you plan on running 5:30 and your BQ is 4 hours, pony up $9000. They'll still fill the spots, guaranteed.

distance guy wrote:

In the article, I found this quote from McGillivray to be pretty egocentric:

“I don’t want to eliminate the sense of runner euphoria when they cross the finish line of a qualifying race and they look at the clock and see a time,’’ said McGillivray. “I don’t want them to cross the finish line and say, ‘I hope I’m in now.’ You’d like to structure this where you run a certain time and you can start celebrating right away.’’

This implies he thinks everyone runs other marathons simply to qualify for Boston. Does he really believe that is the first thing that crosses everyone's mind when they finish a marathon somewhere else? Some people may, but I doubt that's the case for most.

olympic trials?

They need to get rid of those tired old farts like Guy Morse. It is this inability to forward think which almost killed the marathon in the 80's. They best hope they do not lose the Hancock sponsorship. FYI, that is rumor floating around the halls of Hancock.

John Hancock has been holding this event back for years. Boston is a very marketable event. Boston does not need John Hancock, they can do better.

1) Lower the qualifying times so that fast runners can get in.

2) Put a certain number of slots up for auction.

Let the market work.

IllinoisMaster wrote:

1) Lower the qualifying times so that fast runners can get in.

2) Put a certain number of slots up for auction.

Let the market work.

this is a great idea. Keep out the riff-raff and make it a fabulous networking event. Win-win!!

Arch Stanton wrote:

For example, about 8 different people have suggested earlier registration periods for faster people.

Crap idea. Faster runners should have the privilege of registering later than the "I'll show up and run regardless of injury or fitness" shlubs, not be forced to register before them. If the faster slots aren't filled by two or three weeks prior to the race then open those remaining up to the tourist jogger shlubs, in addition to opening up a reserved block of entries to them at an earlier date.