I know 3 runners who missed the cutoff for Boston

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davemunger
davemunger Posts: 1,139 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
The Boston Marathon just announced that runners who qualified by 1:37 better than their qualifying time or worse would not be admitted to the race.

http://www.runnersworld.com/boston-marathon/2014-boston-marathon-cut-off-is-138-under-qualifying-mark

Amazingly, I know three runners who qualified but didn't make the cut:

1. 3:14:13 (BQ was 3:15:00, qualified by 47 seconds)
2. 3:24:30 (BQ was 3:25:00, qualified by 30 seconds)
3. 3:04:07 (BQ was 3:05:00, qualified by 53 seconds)

One friend thought he had missed it by 3 seconds but it turned out he will be in a new age group and he actually made the cut by 4:57.

Seems weird to realize that I know 3 of the 2,900 runners who didn't make the cutoff, out of all the millions of marathoners in the world.

Replies

  • donrdon
    donrdon Posts: 216 Member
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    Is the amount of runners that are qualifying so high for each of age groups the reason for this cut off? I thought they had lowered the qualifying times recently because of this. Says a lot for the quality of the runners out there.
  • davemunger
    davemunger Posts: 1,139 Member
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    Now it's four -- just talked to fourth guy, who ran a 3:08:29. He turns 40 a couple months *after* Boston so did not qualify. He beat his mark by 1:31, which means he missed the cutoff by only 6 seconds. Ouch!
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
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    yup, I know a handful of runners as well who missed the 1:38 mark

    I think the biggest reason this year is because those who didn't finish last year d/t the bombing were invited back without havig to qualify so they had to limit the numbers somehow
  • davemunger
    davemunger Posts: 1,139 Member
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    Is the amount of runners that are qualifying so high for each of age groups the reason for this cut off? I thought they had lowered the qualifying times recently because of this. Says a lot for the quality of the runners out there.

    Yes, they had 25,655 runners apply for 22,679 spots, so they rejected 2,976 of them.

    Of course, some people qualify and don't apply for entry, so there are more qualifiers than that. This year there was an especially high number of people interested in racing because of the bombings last year.
  • Codefox
    Codefox Posts: 308 Member
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    Yeah, my brother's g/f is one of the BQers who didn't make the cut. Feel bad for her 8( I know 5 people who made it in though 8) (I'm not even close)
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    Of course, some people qualify and don't apply for entry, so there are more qualifiers than that. This year there was an especially high number of people interested in racing because of the bombings last year.

    Yeah, this is me. I was going to run it until the tragedy of last year. I just didn't want to get caught up in all the hoopla and the additional 9000 runners. It's crowded enough as it is. I'll re-qualify in a couple weeks and run it in 2015.

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