Monday, March 7, 2011

Boston Qualifying and the Winthrop Marathon

Last year 24% of the Winthrop Marathon finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon(aka BQ'ed). A BQ percentage that high would have placed the Winthrop Marathon among the top 15 most effective races to use to get into the classic race in Boston had it had enough runners to qualifiy for the list! (Races have to have at least 250 finishers to be considered for the list compiled by Marathon Guide). This makes the 2011 Winthrop Marathon an obvious choice to use to try to get a BQ but thanks to a change to the Boston Marathon application process runners at Winthrop will have to use their times to qualify for the 2013 Boston instead of 2012! DARN!

Registration for 2012 Boston marathon is from September 12 to September 23 this year (2011), which won't allow 2011 Winthrop Marathon(Sept 25th) runners to qualify for the 2012 Boston, BUT it will allow them to get a BIG HEAD START on qualifying for the 2013 Boston Marathon. See article in Running times---->
http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21985

In addition to the new registration system the 2013 Boston Marathon qualifying times are more stringent than in previous years, and must be run on or after September 24, 2011. Like the 2012 registration process, the acceptance of official race entrants will be based on qualifying time, with the fastest qualifiers (in relation to their age and gender) being accepted first until the race is full. All qualifying times are subject to review and verification.

2013 Qualifying Times (effective September 24, 2011)

Age GroupMenWomen
18-343hrs 05min 00sec3hrs 35min 00sec
35-393hrs 10min 00sec3hrs 40min 00sec
40-443hrs 15min 00sec3hrs 45min 00sec
45-493hrs 25min 00sec3hrs 55min 00sec
50-543hrs 30min 00sec4hrs 00min 00sec
55-593hrs 40min 00sec4hrs 10min 00sec
60-643hrs 55min 00sec4hrs 25min 00sec
65-694hrs 10min 00sec4hrs 40min 00sec
70-744hrs 25min 00sec4hrs 55min 00sec
75-794hrs 40min 00sec5hrs 10min 00sec
80 and over4hrs 55min 00sec5hrs 25min 00sec
*Unlike previous years, an additional 59 seconds will NOT be accepted for each age group time standard.