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They call that a "BQ" or Boston Qualified. But it actually doesn't guarantee you entry because for that age group (Male 18 - 30?) there ends up being too many

They call that a "BQ" or Boston Qualified. But it actually doesn't guarantee you entry because for that age group (Male 18 - 30?) there ends up being too many qualified entrants so they have to shave down the actual time required for entry. When I was running, it was 3:05 for example but you had to run a <3:03 to make it in.

Kon-Peki 2y ago
So this is what confuses me. You can look at the most recent results. There were 14578 male finishers in the most recent Boston Marathon. 7000th place was 3:29:24. 14000th place was 5:29:37. How do these runners get into the race if they needed to go 3:03:00 (or whatever the current number is) to qualify? I'm clearly missing some piece of important information!
- agundy 2y ago
  Boston has two modes of entry, qualifying time or meeting a fundraising goal of something like $5,000. I suspect 5:29 runners are fundraisers.
  - Kon-Peki 2y ago
    Ah, I see. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any official information about the second mode of entry. I assume that this is intentional.
    - canucker2016 2y ago
      I don't know why they don't distinguish entrants who are fund-raising versus time-based qualifiers. If you ran a marathon sufficiently fast to get under the qualifying time, that doesn't mean that you are required to run THAT FAST on race day for the Boston Marathon. Some runners try and run fast on race day and discover that their body has hit the "wall" and are forced to run slower, walk for much of the remainder of the race, or worst case, drop out. Qualifying times for the Boston Marathon are different for older age groups. Older runners can get into Boston with a much slower time than someone in their 20s. Then there are years where it would require super-human effort to get close to a qualifying time (i.e. 2018, year of heavy rain and wind, see https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/japans-kawauchi-wins-boston-marathon-spectacular-upset/ https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/japans-kawauc... )

Kon-Peki 2y ago

So this is what confuses me. You can look at the most recent results. There were 14578 male finishers in the most recent Boston Marathon. 7000th place was 3:29:24. 14000th place was 5:29:37. How do these runners get into the race if they needed to go 3:03:00 (or whatever the current number is) to qualify? I'm clearly missing some piece of important information!

agundy 2y ago
Boston has two modes of entry, qualifying time or meeting a fundraising goal of something like $5,000. I suspect 5:29 runners are fundraisers.
- Kon-Peki 2y ago
  Ah, I see. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any official information about the second mode of entry. I assume that this is intentional.
  - canucker2016 2y ago
    I don't know why they don't distinguish entrants who are fund-raising versus time-based qualifiers. If you ran a marathon sufficiently fast to get under the qualifying time, that doesn't mean that you are required to run THAT FAST on race day for the Boston Marathon. Some runners try and run fast on race day and discover that their body has hit the "wall" and are forced to run slower, walk for much of the remainder of the race, or worst case, drop out. Qualifying times for the Boston Marathon are different for older age groups. Older runners can get into Boston with a much slower time than someone in their 20s. Then there are years where it would require super-human effort to get close to a qualifying time (i.e. 2018, year of heavy rain and wind, see https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/japans-kawauchi-wins-boston-marathon-spectacular-upset/ https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/japans-kawauc... )