Boston is closed

Just like to say, joeink, you have a lot of class, integrity, and solid character to post this. You could've easily posted anonymously and bashed the BAA, but you didn't. In my book, they should let you in on character alone.

sure you will wrote:

and i'm taking my ball with me wrote:

I guess the toughest among us will all just run Fukuoka instead.

Yeah. Right. One American ran Fukuoka last year. Have fun! Enjoy those inexpensive plane tickets and Japanese hotel prices!

$95 per night at the Best Western in Fukuoka.

Beantown Billy wrote:

Drop the Q times 5 minutes for all male AGs and 8 minutes for all female AGs. If it isn't sold out by February 1st, let people who qualified under the old standards in.

Sounds good. Something definitely has to be done. I was really shocked that it filled up in one day. I say toughen up the standards and I will be back again someday, until then it's a turn off for me.

Augusto Perez wrote:

sure you will wrote:

Yeah. Right. One American ran Fukuoka last year. Have fun! Enjoy those inexpensive plane tickets and Japanese hotel prices!

$95 per night at the Best Western in Fukuoka.

On a cold and grey Fukuoka morning a poor little american is stuck in the ghetto

... in the ghetto!

What's going to happen next year? Is it going to close in less than 2 hours? This has become a race for 3hr marathoners to impress their friends, not a race for the truly fast runners to test themselves against their peers.

justmy2cents wrote:

They could open registration 2 months early for those beating the qualifying time by 20 minutes, and then 1 month early for those beating the qualifying time by 10 minutes.

You are a brilliant person, but so am I, only my revelation was 2 minutes quicker. You probably run faster though.

Tufted titmouse wrote:

This idea would make everyone happy. Open registration for 1 week for people who beat their Q-time by 30+, then open registration for another week for all beating their Q-time by 20+ minutes, then another week for 10+ minutes, then thereafter open it for all. That way the fastest runners can get into the race even if they're dumb and incompetent.

This is the most sensible idea I have heard all day today. I beat my qualifying time by 10+ minutes and I would be more than OK with giving faster guys the opportunity to sign up first. I also think the qualifying standards for women need to be revised.

However, I think that all this talk about Boston not being exclusive anymore is pure BS. Overall, only about 11% of all marathoners hit a BQ time. If this was a test that would be an 11% pass rate! If that is not exclusive then I don't know what is. I think all you guys who are so high on your athletic superiority need to accept the fact that the raw number of runners is growing at breakneck speed. 2010 will probably see close to 500K marathoners. If the raw number goes up, well guess what? The number BQ'ers will also go up!!

Boston is still exclusive as all hell. The race just needs to acclimate to the fact that the sport is growing at an incredible rate. This is really a good thing for the sport. Y'all need to take a breather and give the BAA a break. I'm sure they will do the right thing to revise the process for 2012.

Guys while all these are brilliant suggestions don't you think the BAA has already considered these. They have seen the registration time get earlier and earlier. They knew something like this would happen. Especially after what happened last year. But did they do anything, no. The reason is because the BAA doesn't care about the 2:25 - 2:50 guys. Yes you guys are fast and almost elite and deserve special privaleges over ordinary 3+ runners. But not to the BAA. All of this controversy is good for Boston. They get increased media attention and more story lines in the papers. What does that translate into, more revenue for them! They knew this would happen and were chompin at the bit for it to occur. So will they make any significant changes, probably not. Not until they see the demand go down. Business is all about supply and demand and the BAA is no exception. You can either accept it and make the effort possible to get in or run some other marathon. Either way the BAA is getting their max profit.

+1 BAA

Just a guess, but I'm thinking it got filled so fast more from 3:45 and up girls than the 3:05 guys

skip, sorry if this is already addressed but there is no way i can see boston turning you down if you email them. top 100 should be more than guaranteed to get in, if not get reduced/comp entry. hope you get in.

I was hoping to come in at 3:45. When I started running, Boston was a goal. I plan on doing a 3:30. Boston selling out just tells you how important this event is to many. It is my intention to make this marathon my best ever. And Bum? You must be one of the "smug" types. Too bad, I hope for you that if and when the day comes you can no longer run, you have something else to do.

Junior wrote:

Off-Topic question to the starter of this thread:

I notice the name you used to make the post was "Up The Irons." Does this in fact mean you are a supporter of West Ham United FC?

I am a supporter of Iron Maiden

Boston runner no more wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

Otherwise, Boston has become a complete joke. They will end up with a lottery on top of the standard.

Agreed. They have basically lost their reputation as a more "elite" race in favor of a megathon. I appreciate the marathon's history and love the race, but it's time for another marathon (or two) to step up as a competitive marathon instead.

All this craziness isn't making me want to run it again.

I agree completely. The market has spoken, and yes, there IS plenty of room to compete vs Boston.

Honestly the only thing is has is the history, but if someone put on a quality event, with STANDARDS (not just another mass marathon i.e what boston has become) you could attract a good number of people.

The market is there, time for someone to exploit it.

"I'm sure if the Whirlaway team wants to put in an elite masters group it'll only take an e-mail to the BAA to get them in.

This isn't Russia."

I hope you realize this quote will become instantly legendary on said Whirlaway Masters team.

3:05 dude wrote:

Just a guess, but I'm thinking it got filled so fast more from 3:45 and up girls than the 3:05 guys

The results this year will be very interesting. My bet it will be weighted, literally and figuratively, to 3:45:00 and slower with females being the majority.

As stated earlier, no shows should be telling too.

i agree. the female qualifying times are absurdly slow. elite women run 15-20 minutes slower than men. why are boston qualifying times 30 minutes slower than men? i'll tell you why--women don't train as hard and aren't as competitive. i see exactly that where i live. there are lots of women runners, but most of them don't train hard at all, whereas the men are serious about their running.

lower the qualifying times for everyone, especially for women.

I may be off base on this or just trying to justify my answer, but I think the 30min discrepancy is legit. Look at the average winning time for men at a common marathon (ie, not NYC, Chicago, Boston, London) and compare that to the winning time for the women. It is about 30mins. Men win around 2:20-2:30 and women win around 2:50-3:00. If you compare the top 10-20 places, you get the same difference. That is why I think there is the 30min difference in Boston qualifying times.

If they are going make the qualifying standards tougher, they should announce it as soon as possible so people running New York or other upcoming marathon know what they will have to shoot for to qualify.

wowpow wrote:

women don't train as hard and aren't as competitive. i see exactly that where i live. there are lots of women runners, but most of them don't train hard at all, whereas the men are serious about their running.

I am a male that has run 2:39, there are a half dozen women that run the same streets as I do that kick my ass and out work me as well. I would be willing to bet that you would not be such a big talker if you lived in my town.