Is this really a surprise to anyone? When they scheduled the makeup date, I think many (most?) had their doubts it would happen. Then they canceled the Olympics and the writing was on the wall. Just way too much risk and uncertainty right now.
I was signed up for 2020, and am glad they are refunding. I wasn't at all enthused about training all through the hot/humid summer and then doing a what was bound to be "inauthentic" Boston.
This was the right call!
? wrote:
The real problem for people who were in for 2020 will be the people who will now age up.
You have the people who got in already for 2020 who now have 5 or 10 minutes added to their cushion, bumping up the cut off. Then you have people who were cut from 2020 but now qualify as a result of aging up. Then you have all the people who didn't bother applying because they didn't qualify before but they qualify now . And you've got all the applicants who qualified for the 2021 qualifying period.
The cut off is going to increase dramatically.
I hadn't even thought about this. There is no way they should let anyone register with a race from Sept of 2018 through Sept of 2019 that did not already get accepted to the original 2020 marathon. That would be asinine. You could literally qualify for an age group 2 1/2 years before you reached it in that case.
I was just blasted on The Gram. A charity runner says that BAA is stealing money. She wants them to give her back the $10k she raised. Ooof! Runners are nuts. The price they pay for shoes, online coaches, compression socks... Now they want a refund on a charity gift?
Chrisfilm wrote:
? wrote:
The real problem for people who were in for 2020 will be the people who will now age up.
You have the people who got in already for 2020 who now have 5 or 10 minutes added to their cushion, bumping up the cut off. Then you have people who were cut from 2020 but now qualify as a result of aging up. Then you have all the people who didn't bother applying because they didn't qualify before but they qualify now . And you've got all the applicants who qualified for the 2021 qualifying period.
The cut off is going to increase dramatically.
I hadn't even thought about this. There is no way they should let anyone register with a race from Sept of 2018 through Sept of 2019 that did not already get accepted to the original 2020 marathon. That would be asinine. You could literally qualify for an age group 2 1/2 years before you reached it in that case.
Hey, that's me! I had a 2020 qualifier, but decided not to enter. I will now. I also have a 2021 qualifier (Myrtle Beach 2020, literally the last weekend before every race known to man was canceled), BUT I'm gonna use the time I ran in October 2018 to apply because it trumps my other two qualifiers. This is great!
AlmostBQ wrote:
Dashed hopes wrote:
I ran marathons for years and I could never get in. They kept lowering the times by 5 minutes then another 5 minutes. Last year I trained 4 and half months even up to a 100 miles a week and I had the race of my life in October and qualified by 2:27 minutes under the times they kept lowering. Now with letting 2020 runners run in 2021 I will never get a chance to run Boston.
It took me 14 marathons until I qualified. I squeaked into the race seven seconds ahead of the BQ cutoff (-1:09 under for the 2015 cutoff of -1:02). Making that time at last meant more to me than running at a cold, rainy Boston the following year.
Keep at it. Don't wear yourself out at a young age putting in so many miles. I did and now I watch from the sidelines. Stay active and running for longevity. There will be a time where the time standards will be easy for you beat by a country mile. BAA wants older folks who will drop a lot of cash at the expo after all.
I'm almost 51.
The age change should not apply in this. For example, if someone ran a BQ in 2018 when he/she was 34, they should not be able to qualify with that same time on that date when it is 2020 as a 35 year old. The time was run at age 34, not at age 35.
Hard to guess wrote:
First, the BAA said registered runners can use their 2020 time. This suggests non-registered runners who missed the cut-off can not use their 2020 time.
that wouldn't matter. The cutoff can't be lower than it was before, so people who missed it previously wouldn't get in this time either.
RunnerHorn16 wrote:
The age change should not apply in this. For example, if someone ran a BQ in 2018 when he/she was 34, they should not be able to qualify with that same time on that date when it is 2020 as a 35 year old. The time was run at age 34, not at age 35.
It can be worse than that. I happen to age group up days before the 2021 marathon. With the expanded window I could theoretically use a time when I was 2.5 years younger. My best time is actually in the 2021 window so it doesn't matter for me though.
RunnerHorn16 wrote:
The age change should not apply in this. For example, if someone ran a BQ in 2018 when he/she was 34, they should not be able to qualify with that same time on that date when it is 2020 as a 35 year old. The time was run at age 34, not at age 35.
Boston's rule has always been that your qualification group is based on your age the day of the race, not the day you ran your qualifying time.
About 33% of applicants for 2020 didn't get in. Mathematically, 20% of those would be subject to an opportunity to move up a grade. That works out to about 1800 people. That's about 1/3 of the people who qualified with less than 5 minutes to spare.
The impact of people aging up is going to be pretty small.
problem right here wrote:
About 33% of applicants for 2020 didn't get in. Mathematically, 20% of those would be subject to an opportunity to move up a grade. That works out to about 1800 people. That's about 1/3 of the people who qualified with less than 5 minutes to spare.
Where did you get the 33% from? 2020 field size was supposed to be 31,500 and 3,161 qualifiers were cut out (
https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/qualify).
Another Hobbyjogger wrote:
[quote]problem right here wrote:
Where did you get the 33% from? 2020 field size was supposed to be 31,500 and 3,161 qualifiers were cut out (
https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/qualify).
sorry, I meant for 2019. for 2020, it's even lower. there were 24,000 qualifiers accepted, and 6000 are under the 5 minute buffer. 1200 of those may benefit from this, so it may push the buffer from 1:39 to 2 minutes or so, but it won't be extravagant. 75% of people who run Boston exceed their qualifying time by more than the age group change, so it doesn't impact them very much.
Reading the BAA wording more carefully, I think only accepted applicants to the 2020 marathon will be able to apply for 2021, regardless of the aging up issue.
"Entrants who were accepted into the 2020 Boston Marathon by way of a qualifying time may use their 2020 Boston Marathon qualifying time to apply for entry into the 2021 event. The beginning of the qualifying window for the 2021 Boston Marathon has been established as September 15, 2018, which means that we will accept qualifying performances posted for the 2020 event into the 2021 race, as well."
It's not totally clear though that they won't open it up to others, there needs to be more clarification. The issue of people within the cohort of accepted applicants aging up is still there though... allowing someone two years younger to gain the advantage of a slower age group qualifying time isn't equitable. The BAA could say that your qualifying time will be determined based on your age as of April 20 2020 if you decide to submit a time from that prior period. But I doubt they will do that, and I don't think the BAA is concerned with equitability.
No way they’ll open 2021 to qualifiers who didn’t make the 2020 cut. The 2021 cutoff already will be more aggressive due to competing the 2020 entrants with the qualifiers from Sep 2019 - Mar 2020. Having the other qualifiers pre 2020 cutoff be eligible would way too disadvantage the 2020 entrants, who are not being automatically deferred. 0% chance, as there’s no logic to justify it and it’d be a PR nightmare for the BAA.
? wrote:
Reading the BAA wording more carefully, I think only accepted applicants to the 2020 marathon will be able to apply for 2021, regardless of the aging up issue.
I think you're right. If Boston ends up bumping out 5000 registrants because people who couldn't qualify before are now suddenly eligible, it would be a PR nightmare for them.
herschel schlep wrote:
No way they’ll open 2021 to qualifiers who didn’t make the 2020 cut. The 2021 cutoff already will be more aggressive due to competing the 2020 entrants with the qualifiers from Sep 2019 - Mar 2020. Having the other qualifiers pre 2020 cutoff be eligible would way too disadvantage the 2020 entrants, who are not being automatically deferred. 0% chance, as there’s no logic to justify it and it’d be a PR nightmare for the BAA.
I hope you're right. With just the additional 2021 qualifiers alone the cutoff is going to be insane. And that's not considering the possibility of a smaller field due to COVID. Someone above calculated approximately 16,000 applicants from the 2021 qualifying period, and if you assume that about half already qualified for Boston in 2020, that still leaves 8,000 additional applicants. In 2020 there were about 6,000 people with a 5:00 or less buffer, so that suggests the cutoff time will be between 5:00 and 10:00 under the qualifying time.
? wrote:
Someone above calculated approximately 16,000 applicants from the 2021 qualifying period, and if you assume that about half already qualified for Boston in 2020, that still leaves 8,000 additional applicants. In 2020 there were about 6,000 people with a 5:00 or less buffer, so that suggests the cutoff time will be between 5:00 and 10:00 under the qualifying time.
That's not correct. Historically, 33% of applicants are under the 5 minute buffer. so that would mean 5336 of those 8000 were over 5 minutes. There were 5885 applicants accepted under 5:00 last time. so even if all these numbers were right, the cutoff is still under 5:00.
The question everyone wants an answer to... Will Dave McGillivray be allowed to run his "virtual" marathon on September 14th on the actual course so that he can keep his fake streak alive?
What about the streakers??? Do they have to run a pretend marathon the week of September 7th to keep their streak alive?
Please don't forget your best customers BAA.
Has the BAA made a statement on streakers?
Will those who have run 10+ consecutively have to complete the virtual marathon for their streak to count? Will the virtual marathon count as the 10th consecutive if someone has done 9 up to the virtual marathon?
Will the BAA still allow 10+ year streakers to register earlier with minimum qualifying standards?
You don't, you have a 5 mile closed loop around downtown Boston and run it 5.24 times. Not that hard to do
I'm pretty stoked that my 6:52 cushion from my 2019 Boston Marathon that got me into 2020 now becomes a 16:52 cushion that will get me into 2021! It's fun when I improve my BQ by 10 minutes vice the standard without having to run another marathon! One BQ = 2 unicorn medals - I'll do the virtual one, too, because what else will I do with no races going on?
These are indeed strange times.
Can 2020 please go away, quickly?