The BAA gets good money from the fundraising organizations in return for letting runners fundraise for said organizations, in addition to the entry fees from the charity runners themselves. There is no way BAA would throw that kind of money away just to placate the handful of complainers about the current admission process.
When I think about it and I'm honest with myself, my wanting to run Boston is almost 100% about being able to get the jacket and have people think I'm fast. With that in mind there isn't a way to overhaul the system that wouldn't make it feel kind of illegitimate. The moving target is frustrating, but either I'll get there or I won't and I may as well just accept that.
There clearly is a better way to admit Boston entrants.
1) Change the qualifying times to hard times. If you hit the time, you are 100% in period. Doing what they do now is absurd.
That is a no-brainer. The other option would be to get rid of all charity runners but that's not going to happen as it's politically incorrect.
Question, when you run Boston do they differentiated the bibs? Like if you are running, do you know if the person net to you is a charity runner or a qualifier?
Seriously, are you retarded? I knew you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth, isolated from us plebeians, but do you really not see the value of charities?
Almost $72,000,000 was raised earlier this year! Do you not think this is a good thing?
Keep thinking trickle down economics will help the entire country the same way your trust fund trickled down from your parents to you.
I think he's just doing the "as" thing on purpose at this point as it is essentially his trademark.
I don't think he is doing it on purpose as he doesn't know any other way to write as he probably learned to write this way as he's been doing it a TON for a SUPER long time
this is really stupid but wouldn't expect anything else from rojo
the only real change that needs to be made is to disallow all the downhill qualifier races
Of all the many 'supposed' runners that poo poo the downhill races, I haven't seen any indication that anyone of them have ever run one of those dastardly downhill qualifier races. My very first BM qualifying run was on one of those Tunnel downhill runs. BQ-23. All of my other BQ runs have been either the BM itself or another garden variety marathon - all at BQ-18 to -25. I've had similar feedback from quite a few runners with similar stories and times. To further your education you might want to visit 'FIND MY MARATHON' and dig into their Marathon Comparison tool. You might be surprised.
I don't think it's unreasonable to require a BQ race not have a greater net downhill than the Boston Marathon itself. Even though the BAA is making enough money to not need to change anything else, I can see them being arm-twisted into limiting downhill qualifiers, especially if the new BQ times don't significantly reduce the number of cut off applicants in the long run.
this is really stupid but wouldn't expect anything else from rojo
the only real change that needs to be made is to disallow all the downhill qualifier races
Of all the many 'supposed' runners that poo poo the downhill races, I haven't seen any indication that anyone of them have ever run one of those dastardly downhill qualifier races. My very first BM qualifying run was on one of those Tunnel downhill runs. BQ-23. All of my other BQ runs have been either the BM itself or another garden variety marathon - all at BQ-18 to -25. I've had similar feedback from quite a few runners with similar stories and times. To further your education you might want to visit 'FIND MY MARATHON' and dig into their Marathon Comparison tool. You might be surprised.
Okay, so why did you do it? And why does anyone do them if they also supposedly increase recovery time?
There clearly is a better way to admit Boston entrants.
1) Change the qualifying times to hard times. If you hit the time, you are 100% in period. Doing what they do now is absurd.
That is a no-brainer. The other option would be to get rid of all charity runners but that's not going to happen as it's politically incorrect.
Question, when you run Boston do they differentiated the bibs? Like if you are running, do you know if the person net to you is a charity runner or a qualifier?
This post should not be getting down votes.
You have to stop with the "sliding scale" thing. Just make it harder to get in (so you really earn it) and then adjust each year.
This year, for myself, the cut-off was 3:25 (because I am old) but they only took people faster than 3:19:30. That means next year the cut-off should be 3:19.
Whatever space is left over can go to the charity and/or lottery spots.
But at least you wouldn't have people "hit the time" only to find out that they still didn't get in. That is dumb.
And YES, the bibs should be two different colors. One for qualifying and one for everything else.
Boston should just go to a straight lottery like other big races. You pay the fee, if you get selected, you go. If not, too bad. Eliminate the time qualifying altogether. Or they could do a qualifying standard that is harder, like sub 2:30 for males and sub 2:50 for females, you're in. All the other spots go to the lottery entrants.
There clearly is a better way to admit Boston entrants.
1) Change the qualifying times to hard times. If you hit the time, you are 100% in period. Doing what they do now is absurd.
That is a no-brainer. The other option would be to get rid of all charity runners but that's not going to happen as it's politically incorrect.
Question, when you run Boston do they differentiated the bibs? Like if you are running, do you know if the person net to you is a charity runner or a qualifier?
This post should not be getting down votes.
You have to stop with the "sliding scale" thing. Just make it harder to get in (so you really earn it) and then adjust each year.
This year, for myself, the cut-off was 3:25 (because I am old) but they only took people faster than 3:19:30. That means next year the cut-off should be 3:19.
Whatever space is left over can go to the charity and/or lottery spots.
But at least you wouldn't have people "hit the time" only to find out that they still didn't get in. That is dumb.
And YES, the bibs should be two different colors. One for qualifying and one for everything else.
The point is that Boston specifically doesn't have lottery spots. That's what makes it unique and I don't think they want to change that.
So they're left with the option of having a higher percentage of charity runners if they are wrong in estimating what the "guaranteed qualifying" time should be. What if they get 20k instead of 22k - are they really going to give an extra 2k bibs to charity participants? For free?
Boston should just go to a straight lottery like other big races. You pay the fee, if you get selected, you go. If not, too bad. Eliminate the time qualifying altogether. Or they could do a qualifying standard that is harder, like sub 2:30 for males and sub 2:50 for females, you're in. All the other spots go to the lottery entrants.
FYI most major lottery races also have qualifying times that exempt those runners from the lottery. None of the majors do a straight lottery. You can qualify out of it, and everyone else can enter the lottery if they don't do charity.
If Boston held a lottery for remaining entrants it would likely be like Berlin/NYC/London where your odds of getting drawn would be "enter 20 years and not get picked once" slim.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
There clearly is a better way to admit Boston entrants.
1) Change the qualifying times to hard times. If you hit the time, you are 100% in period. Doing what they do now is absurd.
That is a no-brainer. The other option would be to get rid of all charity runners but that's not going to happen as it's politically incorrect.
Question, when you run Boston do they differentiated the bibs? Like if you are running, do you know if the person net to you is a charity runner or a qualifier?
Do you really not know how the bib colors work? Really? JFC.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.