Rosswog Running Blog

interesting. thanks for sharing. what do you think about it?

Allie, I still wish I was taking my college speech class because this would make for an excellent debate topic (i.e., it will certainly cause controversy no matter what decisions are made). If Dave McGillivray asked me what his team should due in regards to BQ times, I would advise him to reduce both the men's and women's times across the tiers. If the awesome growth in running continues for a few more years, Boston will have to have a lottery or decrease qualifying times. I think Boston is an achievement and if a runner qualifies, he/she should get in as long as he/she registers in a reasonable amount of time. In other words, one should not have to BQ then depend on luck to get in. With that said and without analyzing the data, I would reduce the women's times a little more than the men's times. Maybe 2 minutes for the men and 5 for the women, thus a 27-minute differential. I think the article is correct in that the second group of women runners (by the way, an interesting concept that I never heard of before reading this article) would be able to run faster to meet the qualifying time. My plan would probably negatively impact some of the Boston vets that are doing everything possible just to meet the current times. Also, I would not favor just decreasing the qualifying times for women because they are still only 42% of the field (historically this is great, but still not 50/50). Since I have the famous Kathrine Switzer 1967 Boston pic as my PC's desktop and Marathon Woman is my second favorite running book (needless to say, Switzer is one my running idols), it's my belief that just decreasing the QTs for the women would not play well, especially if they decreased it by ten minutes (plus, you would not want to discourage the group leading the running boom). This is just my take, what are your thoughts?

i agree, a great debate topic.

as you mentioned, one should not have to rely on luck to get in once they have qualified. if so many people are qualifying now that some runners are turned away, this is an obvious sign that qualifying times need to be lowered. that is the lure of the race -- you can only run it if you are fast enough to get in. it doesn't seem quite as meaningful anymore because so many people are able to get in. there is also the big debate about how many spots they leave open for charity runners who haven't run a qualifying time but are still granted an entry because they are running for a charity. i see that debate come up on discussion forums every spring -- people get very angry about that topic :)

i also agree with your proposed time differential. if they are going to lower the times, lower it for both males and females, but lower the female times by a larger margin to be more in line with what history tells us is the average differential between men and women.

i have also read marathon woman. great book. just two days before TOU, i went back and read the chapter when she ran a PR of 2:51:37 at boston in 1975.

"i felt like the road just came up to meet me" -- totally inspired me.

If you ask me, I think they should do away with Boston all together. Just get rid of it. I'm not talking about the marathon. I'm talking about the whole entire city.

Allie, I absolutely remember reading about Switzer’s 2:51 marathon; that is, it also inspired me in that it demonstrated hard work really does pay off. It's been a few years, but I remember reading how hard Switzer trained leading up to that Boston Marathon and after that race describing how she actually felt like athlete even though she had never really considered herself one. Also, at the time I was reading this book I could not even imagine ever running a 2:51 and how that would feel. As a result, when I ran under 2:51 at the D-News a couple of years ago, I e-mailed my sister telling her that I felt like Kathrine Switzer out there. The "I felt like the road just came up to meet me" is such an awesome feeling! It’s cool to know someone that has read Marathon Woman because I always recommend it to everyone. Also, I completely agree with your points on Boston.

Okay Burt, you know how to really cause controversy! LOL!!! Keep up the running and I can see you running Boston one of these years. Needless to say, it's and unbelievable experience.