Boston 2025 cutoff discussion

*matt choi wearing a NON-BINARY ELITE backwards baseball cap and sunglasses half the size of his face, giving double sign of the horns while wearing Alphafly 3 with rockets attached to the heels being pulled by a dogsled down a mountain, shouting*

SUB THREE BABY, SEE YOU AT THE BOSTON START LINE (EVEN IF I DON'T MAKE THE CUTOFF), LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ELITE RUNNING TIPS

He is just too slow. Makes Koreans look pretty bad. Can't lift. Can't run. Just an embarrassment to fermented kimchi.

This is probably what he wants to aspire to.

If you think you're realistically in 2:55 shape but you think the cutoff will be 2:53 for you, you can go out at 2:53 pace and just hope you don't blow up but you may end up significantly off of 2:53 in that case, whereas you'd be much closer if you ran right at your assumed fitness level. If your goal is to run at Boston, you'd want to balance the risk of blowing up and the risk of missing the cutoff, which would be pretty challenging if your fitness is right at the presumed-cutoff +/- a couple minutes.

Ha he was in my corral and I saw him and immediately started booking it to get as far away as possible.

This was my mindset in Indianapolis in October (2023). Was shooting for 10 minutes under my mark and just missed it (9 minutes, 36 seconds). I am hoping that is enough.

You should have loudly asked him what his qualifying time was in front of the entire corral. When he says he ran 2:59, inform him that the cutoff was minus 5:32 so he needed a 2:54:28 or faster. Then ask him how he got into the race (and corral 1).

Boston had 10,908 qualifiers this year as opposed to 13,755 last year (down about 9%).
This brings down the trend from about a 30% increase to about a 12% increase in total.

2024 Boston: 52,217 total qualifiers
2025 Boston: 47,139 total qualifiers (with a lot of races to go).

Some big races still to come include:
Grandma's - 1323 last year
Eugene - 468
Mountains to Beach - 402
Revel Big Cottonwood - 335
Glass City - 323

* down about 20%

correlating with this article:

joesgottarun.medium.com

An attempt to predict the cutoff time for the 2025 Boston Marathon.

https://joesgottarun.medium.com

Like most runners aiming to qualify for the 2025 Boston Marathon, I would very much like to know what the cutoff time will be before toeing…

Link:joesgottarun.medium.com/an-attempt-to-...

and balancing the fact that it's easter monday next year (less applications) with the 250th anniversary celebration of revolutionary war (more applications)

and the wave of summer cheater and last chances courses which will jack up the percentage again

it will probably settle around 20% increase in BQs year over year

then factor in continued increase in international interest and desire for 6WMs worldwide / travel on fire not reflected by these statistics

End result is probably a cutoff around 8 minutes or toward the upper end of the prediction

Boston being hot saved it from being a 10+ minute total disaster

The heat not only kept BQs at bay but also affected BQ times.

I think we need to know the number of BQ-5:32 times. Are they up or down from last year?

Revel Big Bear has a 4000+ foot drop.

For 2024 there were 41,000 BQ’s but only 33,00 applicants. How many of those 8,000 were single runners with multiple BQ’s which would be the same question for this year’s 47,000 (thus far). I also wonder what other factors come into play - people that qualified for Boston and London that could only afford to run one. There were also 2 London marathons eligible for 2024 BQ’s - though not sure how that really effects 2025 if BQ’s have already surpassed 41,000

I run with a hobby jogger group once a week. Most of them are not crazy BQ want to be qualifiers who put their life on the line. But a lot of them have gotten in with less than 40mpw by getting the BQ on all downhill races. What percentage of qualifiers get in by this route. It's simply not the same as someone who BQ on a fast course like cim and grandma.

(BAA doesn't identify a difference between courses, and that's all that matters.)

The below website probably provides the best breakdown that you are looking for:

findmymarathon.com

Best Boston Marathon Qualifiers 2024

Best marathons to qualify for the Boston Marathon. View the percentage and number of Boston qualifiers for all certified marathons in 2024.

Link:findmymarathon.com/bestbostonmarathonq...

these downhill cheater courses are pathetic

even worse is when someone tries to claim as a PR

how delusional do you have to be. says a lot about your character in terms of honesty, cutting corners, etc.

i think the cutoff is going to be 10 min.

If they are cheater courses why are they recognized by the BAA? Seems to be a logic gap as they must have some reason for accepting them and have been doing so for years.

I've heard people do all kinds of mental gymnastics to legitimize a downhill marathon PR ("but, it's soooo much harder on your legs, I was wrecked for weeeeeks afterwards" "the wear and tear on your legs actually makes it harder than a flat marathon"). However, experienced marathoners always acknowledge how much faster downhill courses are, and how much easier it is to nab a BQ on a REVEL course.

Your opinion on the courses themselves have logic. What I’m interested in is the negativity towards BAA. Everyone on the post seems to venerate the institution but not question why it accepts these courses. It must have a rationale for doing so, and though there is obvious disdain for the courses themselves , they fall under the approved category for some reason. I’m just curious to know what that is