Boston Marathon

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tayken
Tom Longboat
Posts: 207
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:16 pm
Location: 401 corridor, ON

Boston Marathon

Postby tayken » Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:44 pm

This race really needs to do a better revamp to mitigate the issue they are currently facing. If you set the same qualifying times regardless of age and gender, there won't be the issue of having to come up with certain timings faster than your BQ time.

What they failed to mention so far, is how many people got in through the backdoor i.e. charity route

As per the announcement published by the Boston Athletic Association, the field was capped at 30,000 for the 2018 Boston Marathon. The 122nd running of the famous race will happen on April 16, 2018.

According to the B.A.A., 5,062 applicants were unable to be accepted due to the large number of eligible qualifiers who submitted an application for entry combined with field size limitations. This year’s group of applicants was a fast one: 4,691 of qualifiers met their qualifying time by 20 minutes or faster. 7,673 met their qualifying time by 10 minutes or faster.

Registration opened on Sept. 11 and was re-opened from Sept. 18 to 20.


Source - https://runningmagazine.ca/2018-boston- ... unced-323/
On the books for 2017

Winterman 10km - (1st in age group) - Feb 19,
Chilly Half Marathon - Mar 5 (Done)
Around the bay 30k - Mar 26, (Done)
Limestone 1/2 - Apr 30,
Ottawa race weekend Voyager Challenge - May 27-28,
Spring Fling Toronto - June?
World Record Kilt Run Perth - June 24
Foam Fest 5k Ottawa - Jul 22
Pure Protein Night Race - Aug 12
Army Run Vimy Challenge - Sep 17
Marathon Du P'tit Train Du Nord Quebec - Oct 22

Dstew
Bill Crothers
Posts: 3463
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:41 pm

Re: Boston Marathon

Postby Dstew » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:06 pm

tayken wrote:
What they failed to mention so far, is how many people got in through the backdoor i.e. charity route


How dare the Boston Marathon organizers allow anyone who would dare run to raise money to find a cure for cancer and take the place of some self absorbed narcissist with too much time and money on their hands. I of course speak on behalf of the society of self obsessed egotists as well. How are those poor souls going to feed their ego, their vanity and their pride if their place is taken by something running on behalf of others. Has the world gone crazy.

In all seriousness, I would never want the pressure and responsibility of the BAA. There is now a standing tradition, a very good one in my opinion, of using this event to benefit others. Whether people want to admit it or not, there is a certain degree of selfishness required in order to be able to put in the time and effort required to qualify. I myself lost a friend who was visiting and could not understand why I could not see them because I had a long run. I had put in so much blood, sweat and tears to that point I was not about to "throw it away" and if given the same options, I would not have changed my decision. So having charity runners is a nice way to also remind everyone to keep things in perspective. A quaint hobby v real life struggles with diseases such as cancer.

I do not envy the BAA in having to set qualifying times that are "just right" : too hard and how do you fill out your field in a fair way. Not filling out the field means a loss of money for the BAA and Boston and area business. Just a little too lax and 5,000 people who "qualified" cannot run and you can create some hard feelings. It is only after the registration process is completed do you know if you got it right.

tayken
Tom Longboat
Posts: 207
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:16 pm
Location: 401 corridor, ON

Re: Boston Marathon

Postby tayken » Fri Sep 29, 2017 1:36 pm

You can descend from your high horse now eh. Don't we already have a few charity volunteer relay/ walks / runs out there already ? The CIBC Run for the Cure taking place around the country Sunday is a typical example, and yes I've volunteered my time last 3yrs for this.

My point which you failed to pickup in my previous post......why set a standard, only to tell runners you can't run because "we didn't foresee places being filled up" :roll: Either create a subset of the race for charity runners only, and let the real runners have their circuit.

Around the Bay (oldest road race in NA) doesn't have that issue as a local race, and other international races don't have this problem either. Boston is becoming a joke really. Anybody can get in through the backdoor i.e. less qualifying times for gender, age, etc and wear the jacket to say they did Boston. So what



Dstew wrote:
tayken wrote:
What they failed to mention so far, is how many people got in through the backdoor i.e. charity route


How dare the Boston Marathon organizers allow anyone who would dare run to raise money to find a cure for cancer and take the place of some self absorbed narcissist with too much time and money on their hands. I of course speak on behalf of the society of self obsessed egotists as well. How are those poor souls going to feed their ego, their vanity and their pride if their place is taken by something running on behalf of others. Has the world gone crazy.

In all seriousness, I would never want the pressure and responsibility of the BAA. There is now a standing tradition, a very good one in my opinion, of using this event to benefit others. Whether people want to admit it or not, there is a certain degree of selfishness required in order to be able to put in the time and effort required to qualify. I myself lost a friend who was visiting and could not understand why I could not see them because I had a long run. I had put in so much blood, sweat and tears to that point I was not about to "throw it away" and if given the same options, I would not have changed my decision. So having charity runners is a nice way to also remind everyone to keep things in perspective. A quaint hobby v real life struggles with diseases such as cancer.

I do not envy the BAA in having to set qualifying times that are "just right" : too hard and how do you fill out your field in a fair way. Not filling out the field means a loss of money for the BAA and Boston and area business. Just a little too lax and 5,000 people who "qualified" cannot run and you can create some hard feelings. It is only after the registration process is completed do you know if you got it right.
On the books for 2017

Winterman 10km - (1st in age group) - Feb 19,
Chilly Half Marathon - Mar 5 (Done)
Around the bay 30k - Mar 26, (Done)
Limestone 1/2 - Apr 30,
Ottawa race weekend Voyager Challenge - May 27-28,
Spring Fling Toronto - June?
World Record Kilt Run Perth - June 24
Foam Fest 5k Ottawa - Jul 22
Pure Protein Night Race - Aug 12
Army Run Vimy Challenge - Sep 17
Marathon Du P'tit Train Du Nord Quebec - Oct 22

Dstew
Bill Crothers
Posts: 3463
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:41 pm

Re: Boston Marathon

Postby Dstew » Sat Sep 30, 2017 1:16 am

[quote="tayken"]You can descend from your high horse now eh. Don't we already have a few charity volunteer relay/ walks / runs out there already ? The CIBC Run for the Cure taking place around the country Sunday is a typical example, and yes I've volunteered my time last 3yrs for this.

My point which you failed to pickup in my previous post......why set a standard, only to tell runners you can't run because "we didn't foresee places being filled up" :roll: Either create a subset of the race for charity runners only, and let the real runners have their circuit.

Around the Bay (oldest road race in NA) doesn't have that issue as a local race, and other international races don't have this problem either. Boston is becoming a joke really. Anybody can get in through the backdoor i.e. less qualifying times for gender, age, etc and wear the jacket to say they did Boston. So what



[quote]

I had to get on my high horse to knock you off yours.

Around the Bay is not a marathon so irrelevant to this conversation. Not to be dismissive but it hardly has the same appeal and allure as a major marathon. As someone from Ontario, it may be a big deal but for the rest of the world not so much and so irrelevant.

Berlin, New York and Chicago all have difficult qualifying times and then a draw. New York Marathon was turning away so many runners it cancelled the three misses and you are in rule. So your entire argument is factually incorrect.

So are you suggesting Boston go to the same model as the other major marathons. Have the men run a 3:15 or quicker and the women a 3:00 and then fill out the field with a draw. Is that really that much more fair then the current system? I frankly fail to see how that makes it less as "joke" as you are attempting to suggest.

And I love the arrogance of "real" runners comment. If we are really being honest about it, you have a small handful of professional runners. You have some very talented elite/ world class runners. Less then 2% of runners break the three hour barrier and so if we use this as an arbitrary and artificial division between "real" and recreational runners, then every real runner actually made the cut. I have run a 3:16 marathon and watching myself on video, if I am really being honest, I look like I am going at a very fast jog but not quite "running". I was thrilled to run Boston and I am incredibly proud of my accomplishment. I still wear the jacket I earned in 2006 and 2007 but I would also like to think I can keep things in perspective. It is a quaint and nice little hobby and so it was nice to feel like a "real" runner when I qualified and then ran but at the end of the day, it is something I did for "fun". I would be disappointed if I "lost" my spot to a charity runner but at the end of the day, those runners are as much a part of the event, the tradition as qualifying times.

And in an almost comical stereotypical narcissist and self absorbed egoist manner, you a runner that puts a simple "athletic" achievement well above any real and appreciable value and in doing so you missed my point that the system is not perfect and some people who "should" have qualified will not. BUT, we are talking about a few thousand "runners" and when the tied up the laces at the qualifying races they entered they knew exactly what they may have to do in order to guarantee an entry.

YEAR
FIELD SIZE LIMIT
CUT-OFF TIME*
AMOUNT OF QUALIFIERS NOT ACCEPTED
2012
27,000 1:14 3,228

2014
36,000 1:38 2,976

2015
30,000 1:02 1,947

2016
30,000 2:28 4,562

2017
30,000 2:09 2,957

Here is a simple solution to anyone who feels hard done by - run faster and be an actual "real" runner and not a pretender.

And logically, the harder it is to get in, the faster one has to run, does this not add to the prestige. That there are so many more runners attempting to fight over a set number of spots to the point one has to run close to 3 minutes faster just to ensure their spot makes this more worthy. At one point, runners who failed to meet even easier standards might be let in the fill the field.

And to bring up an old wound, hard for me to get outraged that a few thousand rich people who like to inflict pain on themselves in order to provide a false sense of meaning and purpose to their lives are not allowed to run Boston because others are running to raise money for charity. On my list of injustices in the world, that has to be pretty close to the bottom.


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