New Boston Registration Process Announced

Boston nailed it except for when the masses register this coming year. It will again be a superfast sellout. Only when the new standard begins will everything work smoothly.

I really hope that this meme will catch on at other races that are quick sellouts. I would like to see benefits conferred on people who run fast times, like late registration privileges, preferred corrals and auto-registration at events that sell out or that have a lottery.

jwd wrote:

you utterly misunderstand the whole new process

I agree. It's actually going to be easier for the slow runners to register earlier than the faster one. The slower the time, the easier it is to drop 20 minutes and become the first in line to register.

Try dropping 20 minutes from 3:10. A bit more difficult than dropping it from 3:40.

I wonder how late you can register and still get in if you ran sub 2:10 last year and have a silver medal from the 2004 Olympics?

meb ? wrote:

I wonder how late you can register and still get in if you ran sub 2:10 last year and have a silver medal from the 2004 Olympics?

depends on how much money you demand just for showing up

grounded wrote:

I got the time by 5 minutes, but really need to hit that 10 minute mark to make sure I am in. However, it may be too late to get the training in for a Spring marathon and the most fall marathons are after Boston registration closes.

I wish they would have announced this earlier in the year. If it was early January, a fast April or May marathon would be doable, now, it will be tough

Grounded - If you are motivated you can get the training in to run a fast late spring marathon. You have got to believe that or there is no way it will happen! I was never a talented runner, but I ran my pr in late May off 12 weeks training after XC ski season ended.

Vermont City Marathon is Sunday May 29 in Burlington, that's 14+ weeks from now. It's a long weekend so you might have some extra time if you need to travel, depending on your job. Weather is usually decent, not too warm, especially for the faster runners. If you're going to be out there 4.5-5.5+ hours (12:30-1:30pm and later) it sometimes gets tough. But if you're running in the 3 hour range you're done by 11am. VCM is a net downhill of 100'. There are only about 15 US marathons with more sub 3:00 (and sub 2:45 and sub 2:30) finishers, so you'll have people to race with.

Yup, it's tough to knock your BQ time down another 5-10 minutes. This is not an easy sport. That's why it's worth doing!

meb ? wrote:

I wonder how late you can register and still get in if you ran sub 2:10 last year and have a silver medal from the 2004 Olympics?

If there are already 17 guys in the field with faster PRs then you, probably not very

THIS! is the attitude!

d2xccoach wrote:

[

Yup, it's tough to knock your BQ time down another 5-10 minutes. This is not an easy sport. That's why it's worth doing!

Agreed, I wouldn’t want to take heat for dropping the women’s standards by about 5 minutes, but that may undo all the good that these new rules may do.

I think even the 2102 rules, and maybe with 2013 standards too, it will still sell out in 1st 4 days

So you still may a have a decent number of people finishing a marathon thinking they have a good enough time to get in, but now with the multi wave sign-up, may not even get the opportunity to try. With the instant sellouts it was a technically imposed lottery - to quote McGillivray, but at least a chance. The new system may actually frustrate the very people they were trying to help.

And as others have posted, someone 20 minutes under the qualify time, will not be denied entry as long as they pony up the $ over 6 months in advance - about the same as a New York guaranteed entry. A bit tighter standard (target top 5 maybe 10%) with a last sign-up date closer to January 1st would help retain the Boston Qualify distinction it once had.

Overall I’m glad they are trying to do something for 2012 instead hoping for the best to carry them through another year. We’ll see how it plays out next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find some more tweaks will be needed for 2013

cox marathon in providence flat course may 1st

buffalo and new jersey too.

Wallly is that you. You are wrong-o.

Brandon wrote:

What I like is that it makes the race more competitive while keeping it a reasonable goal for older runners to qualify as many make it their lifelong goal.

No complaints here. I like the new process and the new standard for 2013. I thrive on competitiveness.

ng_run wrote:

agegrade wrote:

This still doesn't address the age grade discrepancy between males and females under age 40. With the new standards, the slowest qualifying time for a 34 year old female is age graded at 63.7% and for a 34 year old male at 67.5%. The same is true for the 35-39 age category. After 40 it evens out. For a female under 35 to match the qualifying standard that is set for men they should be running a 3:22. Considering the new rolling admission this gives a HUGE advantage to this age group, which is also the fastest growing demographic in the running community.

You obviously didn't get an A in math. The equivalent under 35 female time is more in the range of 3:27-3:30.

You're just another bitter guy who can't meet the 3:10 qualifying time.

I'm just using the age grade calculators to find equivalency for different age groups and gender. What criteria are you using? You can check it out for yourself here:

I really don't have any beef in this at all. I'm running Boston in April, my qualifying time was 22 minutes under the standard and I live in California so I don't plan on ever running Boston again. Anyways, I hope all your running dreams come true.

I have been reading posts on various messages boards. Quite entertaining!

dont have the inside scoop on how to validate times in two days, but from a programmer perspective, I believe they already have compiled list of qualifying times from most decent sized marathons in the U.S. that come in throughout the year to scan against

not perfect for computer programs to match - got to deal with misspellings of name and locales and such plus names like William vs Bill etc - but it helps

plus they might not catch in in two days but plenty of time to catch you before April and if I do, you're out for good should be enough of a deterent.

I asked mcgillivray and his DMSE that help manage Beach 2 Beacon how they implemented some of the nice but hard to administrate exceptions - like strakers and local runners -

he laughed, a couple guys manually validate them - you're talking review of maybe 1,000 entries. not close to Boston #'s but gives you an idea of the efforts some RDs are willing to go to ensure they put on a quality race. pls everyone keep that in mind.

just checked out Runners World comments on the lead story

my god.

2nd comment " agree that this sounds fair. When they say "lower" qualifying times, do they mean 3:10 to 3:05 or 3:10 to 3:15?

i guess slow sonesnt always refer to average pace ?

It's a pretty good solution. I would bet that it will not fill up before the 5 minute under group. It seems like the under 35 male has the deck stacked against him even more, but such is life.

It will still be a cluster when the general registration opens and it will be difficult to verify qualifications in such a small window.

I like the new system-at least in the short run. Although the race will likely have more sub 3hr performances, this is not guaranteed. Instead, the new system ensures better competition within age groups. My fear is that the race field will be disproportionately represented by athletes in the age/gender category with the softest standards.

I encourage the BAA to review the demographics of the race field over the next couple of years and then make the appropriate changes to the gender/age qualifying standards to ensure a balanced field in the future.

agegrade makes some good points. Additionally, there is the potential penalty of 20 minutes being a lot harder for a younger runner to make up than an older runner- or vice versa, I haven't had a chance to compare the age grade tables.

Regarding the sex discrepancy, they might limit the proportion of men accepted to women for each class so that it is in line with the averages for the past 10 or 15 years.

True, this is bad I was looking forward to getting a fall marathon qualifier. that may change my plans or push back my Boston.