Runners whose qualifying time for the 2014 Boston Marathon was at least 1:38 faster than their age and gender qualifying standard will receive notice starting today that they're officially registered for next year's race, which will be run on April 21.
The Boston Athletic Association will send notification to the 8,426 runners who submitted entries between September 16 and 20, when registration was open to all time qualifiers. Of those applicants, 5,450 qualifiers were accepted, and 2,976 will receive notice that their qualifying mark wasn't fast enough.
Just more than 17,000 time-qualifier spots were claimed between September 9 and 13, when registration was open on a rolling basis to the fastest qualifiers, ending with those who had surpassed their age and gender standard by at least 5 minutes. Among the accepted applicants from that week, 4,484 met their qualifying time by 20 or more minutes; 6,866 met their qualifying time by 10 or more minutes, and 5,879 met their qualifying time by 5 or more minutes.
The names of runners who have been accepted will be posted on the Entrants page of the B.A.A.’s site.
"Some of those entrants who ultimately will be accepted will not be notified of their acceptance or have their name appear because validation of qualifying performances is ongoing," the B.A.A. said. "The amount of time to verify the performance of qualifiers can vary from race to race."
The 2014 marathon will have a field of 36,000. The B.A.A. has said that time qualifiers will constitute approximately 70% of the field. Some time qualifiers will gain entry other than via the September 9-20 registration process.
During registration in the fall of 2012 for the 2013 marathon, no cut-off time among qualifiers was necessary. After the initial two-week registration period, approximately 2,500 time-qualifier spots remained available on a first-come, first-served basis. The field of qualifiers didn't fill until after the first weekend of October; this timing allowed runners to use early fall marathons for the following spring's Boston.
During registration in 2011 for the 2012 marathon, there were more applications than spots available during the two-week registration period. That year, it took surpassing one's standard by 1:13 or faster to gain entry. However, qualifying standards for the 2012 marathon were 5 minutes slower in each group than for the 2013 and 2014 marathons.
In addition, for the 2012 marathon, there were approximately 21,600 time-qualifier spots available, compared to the 22,000 available during open registration for the 2014 marathon. Furthermore, 1,649 runners who were time qualifiers for the 2013 marathon and were prevented from finishing this year's race by the finish line bombing entered the 2014 marathon via a guaranteed entry registration held August 19 and 29. It's likely that the 2014 cut-off time would have been even faster if these runners had participated in September's open registration.
DUDE, so even if I DID manage a 3:35 (which in no way will happen), I wouldn't have had a chance unless I was at least 3:33:22??? DAMN!
You probably would have for next year. This year was just crazy because of last year.
Congrats shorewife!!!! I was worried when I saw the cutoff time. So glad you got it!
Thanks - I must have JUST made it in! Qualifying time for my AG was 3:45:00 and I ran a 3:43:12. So BTW ladies - the older you get the slower your time can be to qualify. Now and then getting old has its perks