Boston Marathon field size: 20,000

shuffle shuffle wrote:

Mike_Milburys_Shoe wrote:

I really don't understand the value of capping it at 20k. At that point, if they can have a 20k person even, you'd think an addition 10k is pretty irrelevant at that point, no?

It's 33% less people. It's not just the extra 10k participants--it's their whole entourage contributing to the crowds at the expo and along the route.

and fewer people in the corrals, on the buses, at the village...

Do you think they will mandate that participants are vaccinated?

Yah that's what I'm wondering. All predictions point to the US being in good shape by October. But what about the rest of the world? I assumed they were in better shape, but not it sounds like EU is struggling with vaccine rollout.

I'm not sure how they would verify--make everyone show their little cards? Those things are super easy to fake.

I could see vaccination as an international requirement...then again, I could also see it as a requirement across the board.

It's tough to think of a logistical solution that would allow 20k runners to run with their mask down once the race gets going and the simplest solution would be to require 100% vaccination.

Yeah you would think from a liability standpoint that they might have to do something for international runners

UK resident here. I ran 15:48 faster than the standard for my AG in December 2020, expecting to qualify for April 2022. Not October 2021.

I've had the first jab already, will be fully vaccinated by June. However I don't want to pay for an October flight and hotel and book the time off work when there's a risk that a new variant, surge of cases, travel bans, etc., might derail my participation.

I'm gonna hold-out for 2022, hope the usual September-September window applies, and that my time is good enough.

Not interested in virtual.

The right decision?

oh. that guy again wrote:

Insert “Good, the qualifying time should be 2:05” LR comment here.

The really fast 2:05 people will actually be spread out across all the world marathon majors this year, so they'll be watered down. All the spring ones got moved to Fall, so people will have to choose between Chicago/Boston/Berlin New York/London and I imagine Tokyo is moving theirs too

tenpting wrote:

Going to be competitive as hell to get in, which will make the race fun. But what are the chances it actually happens? Maybe 50%?

Nearly 100 percent. By October COVID will largely be a bad memory.

rrhrt wrote:

IndyJ wrote:

Because with the big caveat of assuming no variant escapes the vaccine effort, the pandemic should be well over by October.

As far as the people who choose not to get vaccinated?

I don't care about them and neither should the BAA.

I hope you will be shut out.

I don't care about you and neither should the BAA.

I definitely will be shut out with my - 4:02.

DevonSent wrote:

UK resident here. I ran 15:48 faster than the standard for my AG in December 2020, expecting to qualify for April 2022. Not October 2021.

I've had the first jab already, will be fully vaccinated by June. However I don't want to pay for an October flight and hotel and book the time off work when there's a risk that a new variant, surge of cases, travel bans, etc., might derail my participation.

I'm gonna hold-out for 2022, hope the usual September-September window applies, and that my time is good enough.

Not interested in virtual.

The right decision?

I was thinking there may be less international interest in the October race. Pure speculation, but your post and another on previous page tends to confirm what I was thinking.

Pure speculation, but I suspect many international runners will pass on the October race. I think a significant number may not be ready to pull the trigger in a month to register. Some European countries currently in what's being called a "3rd wave" of infections right now. We're certainly not out of the woods either here in the US, so there is still a lot of uncertainty about what the event will be like in October. Many may want to wait on big expensive travel plans and set their sights on a more traditional Patriots Day Boston Marathon experience in April 2022,

Texas native wrote:

Move the race to Texas or Florida where there is competent leadership.

This made me lol

Did they post the qualifying standards for 2021? The link on baa.org is a dead end. I know what I would need in years past but not sure if that has changed.

footwear = boing, boing, boing?

tagabundok wrote:

Did they post the qualifying standards for 2021? The link on baa.org is a dead end. I know what I would need in years past but not sure if that has changed.

It last changed in 2020. The list is below.

I mean I agree with you. People running their third, sixth, twentieth Boston can’t wait the 6 months to run it in 2022 at the normal time of the year? Selfishly, I’m probably going to miss out with the smaller field too. It stinks and it’s rough cuz if I was 1 year older than I am I’d be a shoo-in to get in for 2022. But I’ll be 34 not 35. Let’s not even get into people doing gadget courses, and the unnecessary 5 min cutdown at age 35-39. I also got my BQ in non plated shoes. Dumb by me

assuming we let u in the country lol

Elbow room wrote:

They mention the charity registration process in the announcement, and PR-wise they'd never get away with cutting charity runners. Plus the slower runners help spread out the field more. Hopefully they cut the charity field proportionally to the qualifying field.

They mention the charity registration process in the announcement, and revenue-wise they'd never get away with cutting charity runners. Plus the slower runners help spread out the field more. Hopefully they cut the charity field proportionally to the qualifying field.

Fixed that for you.^

Also, the idea that slow runners at the back "spreads out the field" makes no sense.

anonymous1001 wrote:

assuming we let u in the country lol

Um, he's from Canada.

Their COVID-19 rates are waaaaaaay lower than Mass.