Men are from Mars and Women get into Boston wayyyy easier

So, my good friend Monica L (who is an awesome athlete in her own right, so none of the article below is about her) is getting ready to rip it up at a marathon next week (and, I hope she goes sub 3:20 in Hamilton!!); I sent her a note letting her know that if Boston fills up, well, she could easily nail a qualifying time for the upcoming ING New York Marathon (**LOTS more to write about that, but later!). Then to no one's real surprise, news broke late last week that the 115^th Boston Marathon sold out in less than eight hours. 8 HOURS! [damn, I can remember the 1st Ironman I did "back in the day" - 1996 Ironman Canada; I entered like 6 months before the race, trained my butt off and was hooked [sure, the Ironman, at least on North American soil, now all fill up day of when registration opens - but Ironman Canada is now re-dic-u-lous! Ya gotta actually be there, line up, and sign up the day after [or before - who cares - I ain't gonna do that, esp. when there are over 25 Ironmans around the world!!]. When I did Austria, or the others, no worries about getting in.

But, I digress...

Last year, the fabled Boston marathon filled to capacity in November and that was shocking. The previous year it was topped off in January and many were left out in the cold thinking it would be open for a few more weeks. Obviously the popularity of the event is growing and the state of running in America is strong. As such, now is the time to make it harder to get into Boston.

It has become quite clear that standards for obtaining a Boston Qualifying time need to be harder. And by “harder”, I simply mean more difficult than the current standard – not impossible for most to reach. Without a doubt, if 20,000 people with a BQ can fill the race in eight hours, the demand has far exceeded the supply.

Not too long ago the qualifying standards were 2:50 for men and 3:15 for women. While I don’t think the move to those very tough standards is necessary, changes need to be made. First and foremost, the female standards are disparagingly slow, almost to the point of insulting women. Women had a large disadvantage in the sport by simply not being allowed to compete in the marathon (or any long distance race) until the past 30 years or so. We have found out what the fairer sex can do and while the female elites may never be in the same class as male elites, the evidence is there that they needn’t be handled with kid gloves anymore. These women are runners and the difference between corresponding age groups should reflect that. The fittest and fastest women out there should not have to only run a time that a 50-54 year old man is required to run.

On the flipside, it is clear that the men’s standards need to drop as well. A full ten minutes per age group might be a little too much but five minutes is completely reasonable. For the 18-34 year old males, running a 3:05:59 is entirely reachable. The same drop would work well for each corresponding group. I mean, hell, my age group - 45-49 - only has to run a 3:30:59 - seriously, that is a 5min km/8 min mile pace - really, an easy long run. Lets make it 3:20 for my age group and get rid of the fluff.

For those that bemoan charity runners, I needn’t really even get into whether they belong or not at Boston. This is an article talking about speeding up the times for those wishing to earn their way into the race with their feet. While 10 years ago distance running seemed to be in a major funk, we can see it has made a major resurgence. Boston is the pinnacle of the marathoning world for its history, prestige, and fans. It should be difficult to get into.

Someone told me recently that Boston is a dream for every runner and it shouldn’t be hard or exclusive. I could not disagree more. If one’s dream is easy to obtain and inclusive then why even have that dream in the first place?

And, before you shoot the messenger here - read the following article I found in Running Times (which I might add is THE best running mag out there): Men/Women & Boston Times - it just ain't fair

see ya on the roads,

Johnny boy