My first thought was "brilliant business idea". Have someone pay for your race entry, travel, lodging and some spending cash and they get a BQ.

Simply WOW!

:-) Wow -- I wish I had that kind of business acumen.

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AndyF
bike geek

Wow....also easy to find their names via BAA website. Interested in how this works out for them.

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I *heart* weak, dumb ass people...

 

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I *heart* weak, dumb ass people...

Good. Expose them all.

Wow!!! I find it kinda funny now that they got caught with pix posted online hahaha Team Cheats

I know cheaters always exist but I really and truly can't understand the mentality of someone who cheats at what is a hobby ...cheating to try to win a World Championship--shameful, but okay, I can understand it....cheating just to qualify for Boston (or Kona) to win absolutely nothing that no one except yourself and MAYBE your family will ever remember, I cannot comprehend.

Is there a limit to the number of people who can qualify for Boston? Are they taking a spot from someone else?

I really don't know. If not, I really have to ask... who cares?

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Ask Mike Rossi [or read the LetsRun thread]

He's a special case though, as most cheaters get caught and shut up ... He just can't leave it alone

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yes, there is a limit. Also, the race has been oversubscribed since the bombings. That means that you need to better the qualifying time by more than 2 minutes to get in.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

Boston sells out, and the faster you run compared to the qualifying time, the better your chances of getting in. So to answer your question, there is no limit on the number of people who can "qualify," but there is a limit to how many people can actually enter Boston. These three runners had extremely fast "qualifying" times, so they essentially bumped out three other people who qualified, but could not enter Boston due to it selling out.

Ok, so it is kind of a big deal. Thanks.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Yes, the past few years there have been a few thousand people who qualified, applied to get in, and were denied because their time still was not fast enough.

So these people are taking away spots from legitimate qualifiers.

I ran into this notorious cheat while I was there. I had to stop. My first time running Boston, I was a tourist on the course.

They actually bumped out 3 people who qualified and entered on time but whose margin of qualification was less than the amount that this guy got for them.

Boston doesn't close out registration when the limit is reached. They allow it to go beyond that because a number of entries will be rejected for other reasons. So you end up with folks who have the proper time and enter on time but don't get in. Slots are given on a margin-of-qualification basis.

This year, anyone whose margin of qualification was less than... I think it was something like 2 minutes actually did not get into Boston no matter when they entered.

Yes, that is what I meant by saying "could not enter," as in they were not awarded a bib. Anyone with a BQ time can apply.

Having said that, it is theoretically possible that nobody was denied a spot. If these three individuals were caught before being given entry into Boston 2016, would that mean that the BAA would have moved the threshold 1 second? That would likely mean that more than 3 additional people would have gotten in.

For example, if they want around 30,000 people in the race...29,920 people have a 2:01 margin or greater, 30,100 people have a 2:00 margin, and 30,300 people have a 1:59 margin. So they pick 2:00 as the cutoff, and 30,100 get in. If these three guys got caught prior, it would just mean that 30,097 get in, not that they would pick 3 people from the 1:59 margin group and allow them in and deny the rest.

But that doesn't mean it's okay, or that people who were denied by 1 second shouldn't be pissed.

It's been a lot longer than that. In 2010, the 2011 race sold out in 20 minutes. In February 2011, for the 2012 race, they changed to the system in place now, where the faster you are, the better your chances of getting a spot are. They also dropped the BQ time by 5 minutes across the board that year.
The bombings were in 13.

Thanks for the opportunity to whine about this one more time - I beat my BQ time by 2 minutes last year and the cutoff was 2:30! Arghhhh!!!!! I have trouble believing there were enough cheaters to make the difference for me, but maybe...?

Cheers!

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Munq

The other posters aren't giving you the full story. No, there's not a limit, per se, of how many people who can qualify for Boston. There's a time standard on a qualified course. Anyone who has ran faster than the qualifying time has qualified for the race.

That doesn't mean, however, that they actually get to run Boston. There's a max number of participants for the race. Due to the high demand, (I'm paraphrasing here) they open up registration for the people who have beaten the qualifying time by a higher mark than those 'slower' runners who have only just beaten the qualifying time. The race will fill up before everyone who has qualified could actually register and the just barely qualified runners may not get in.

So, the faster you run, the higher chances you have of getting in. There is a limit to how many people get to run Boston, which is less than the number of people who qualify for Boston. Are they taking a spot from somebody else? If they actually run the race- yes.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Boston sold out quickly in 2010 (for 2011), but I don't think it was 20 minutes. More like 8 hours.

I remember people had been surprised the year before when registration for the 2010 race closed out in November of 2009. I'm pretty sure that it had traditionally remained open up until at least January of race year. Had it ever sold out?

There was a cut-off in 2011 for the 2012 race (I think it was -1:12), but then the heat at that year's race eliminated a lot of re-qualifiers (I was one of them) and registration did not close during the initial registration window for 2013. They had also tightened the qualifying standards by 5:59.

2014 had a cut-off of 1:38
2015 was something like 1:02
2016 was just 2:30-somethng

I also thought that the BAA announced the new registration procedures on race weekend of 2011, but it's been a while and I could be a little fuzzy on that. Based on that advance notice (at least 5 months before the new qualifying window opened), I don't think we'll see any further tightening of the standards for at least 2018. If something out-of hand happens and the cut grows closer to 5 minutes, then maybe they'll tighten the standards up again for 2019.

Along the same lines - another brilliant idea is to setup a marathon course that's runs along a steady decline for 26 miles and get it Boston certified. It will sell out every year and could eventually become one of the largest feeder races (see Mountains to Beach, Cal Intl, most of the Revel series).

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Are you certain that is how it works?
They could have a long list where everyone is clumped into their "seconds under BQ", then randomized within those groups. Once they pick the magic number of qualifiers, simply go to that magic name and say Yes to them and everyone before them and No to everyone after.

With this system, a single cheat denies entry to a single legitimate qualifier. (of course a cheater may deny another cheater...but eventually that will knock out a legit BQ)

I don't think CIM and M2B are too bad. The Revel series is a bit of a joke. St. George and Tucson aren't much better. I don't think they should serve as qualifiers. For those that did IM St. George, imagine running down to town from Veyo. You have the one climb up the volcano early, and a lot of the race is at *some* elevation, but IMO it's faster than the -2:30 or whatever was the cut this year at Boston.