Are Boston’s Qualifying Times too Easy–For Women?
Registration for the Boston Marathon opens today. As with last year, it is likely that all the slots will be taken and registration closed long before this year’s CIM takes place, effectively making the Boston qualifying time you expect to earn this December to be moot.
Some of the demand for marathon entries is clearly “industry-wide.” For example, our own CIM will sell out very soon. (The website says 325 slots remain as of today.)
The Wall Street Journal has an article on this excess demand for the Boston Marathon, which dares to ask the question of whether the qualifying times for women are too soft.
The Boston Athletic Association pegs the women’s qualifying times at 30-minutes slower than the men’s times, something they established in 1977. More that 30-years have passed. Do women still need this kind of advantage?
What do you think?
UPDATE: The Boston Marathon filled to capacity in a matter of hours today.
Well, it sold out in 8 hours. One of the things that makes Boston special is that you have to earn your way in, but now you have luck your way in. Is it any different than New York now? Or Way Too Cool?
1Call me a curmudgeon, but it used to tough to qualify for Boston and a person had to work for it. For Boston 1976, entry standards were 3:00 for men and 3:30 for women and masters. Then the running boom began, and in 1980, standards came down to 2:50 for men, 3:10 for masters men and 3:20 for women, eventually 3:30 for masters women. All due to the large numbers that qualified. I don’t know if we have to get back to these kind of times; but . . .
And then aren’t slots awarded to charities? 15 for each charity? Do these count against the maximum entries? Boy, I’m going to get in trouble . . .
2CIM runners should also be aware that the “window for the 2012 Boston Marathon is currently under review,” according to the BAA FAQs (as of 10/25/1010). So if BAA decides to shorten the window, even to 16 months or less, running a qualifying time at CIM will not help them get into Boston 2012 either. And from this point forward, CIM could not realistically advertise their event as a Boston Qualifier — because then CIM people would not only be too late to qualify for the Boston Marathon in the following year (because now it fills up so fast, like 8 hours), but also TOO EARLY to qualify for the year after.
3Then the CIM would have to move to either before registration for Boston (who knows when that will be since they keep changing it) or between January and March.
4