I’d be surprised if it does happen but it would be such an awesome time of year for it locally.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Yeah, I'm not overly optimistic either. Maybe a pro-only race with a virtual offering for the rest of us? It's nice to see the planning taking place, though. It makes me feel just a little bit more optimistic about the coming year.

I am a pessimist as well, but even with delays, it seems a ton of elderly, vulnerable, and front line workers will be fully vaccinated by then. That should drive death rates and hospital overload numbers way down. Given the strong appetite, even in the worst of times, to "open up the economy", I would actually be surprised if this doesn't happen.

Thoughts?

Two days after Kona? Booo

I feel like for them to make this announcement now they must have some confidence it will happen? I've been staying pretty "safe" and I am hopeful I will have had the vaccine by then (as with a majority of people) to allow this to happen. Also pretty psyched since I'm from there and always love an excuse to go back home. Perfect time of year.

Curious what they will do in terms of the original cut-off times. I feel fairly safe for myself but I had a friend who only made the cutoff by 18 seconds last time. (I think he was 2:18 under the qualifying time, or something like that.)

I'm guessing that the field size will be smaller if it happens, which means cut-off times may be bigger than usual. Dunno. I'm also really curious what they'll do in terms of the qualifying window for the 2022 race.

That's a really interesting take. You may be right. Perhaps the race goes forward with a smaller field?

I'm a little more optimistic than you are. I think last fall, I thought 2021 was going to be alot more of 2020 but now I'm really thinking that the back half of 2021 is going to be "back to business as usual" for some industries. I was always of the thought that we'd be close to herd immunity in 18 months and combined with the vaccine, I really think the covid numbers will drop dramatically in the next few months. Maybe a seasonal spike hits in the fall of 2021, but at that point I think everyone who want to be vaccinated will have had the change. So based on that I would be surprised if it doesn't take place. Probably the most likely to have a 10000+ person event.

It kind of went under the radar, but the Peachtree was announced to happen over 2 days July 3rd/4th in GA and that's been a 55,000+ person event. This will probably need just as many volunteers as a race like Boston due to the heat and the field is more hobby joggers/walkers than runners. If something like that goes off without a hitch, other races I think will try to move forward if the local govt allows.

Did they give a full refund for last year's race?

I might be interested in the October 2021 edition, but would like my money back if they decide to change it to a virtual later on.

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

More like optimistic it won't happen in the spring. Moving it to October is best case scenario given our current situation.

Yes. First ever refund in Boston's history for the 2020 race.

I'm sorry but Boston has to be in April, or not at all

You can "OK Boomer" me all you want, but watching the NBA Finals in October was weird enough

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

Looks like qualifying window going back to Sept 2018. Another thing to consider is people aging up. I know of a couple of people who didn't make the cut off for 2020, but will for 2021 since they get another 5 or more minutes. I'm sitting at 5 and some change under the standard, but I'm not expecting to get in.

It will be interesting. On the one hand, you have pent up demand that could make it more competitive to get in (in terms of people really want to do a race). On the other hand, there haven't been any qualifying races, so there may be a more constrained pool of people who can enter, because you still need a qualifying time. So, I'm saying you never know, it's a weird year and I can see reasons why the qualifying time cutoff could go up or down from where it's fallen in recent years. Going forward I could see it getting harder for a few years, because of pent up demand, but then also a lot of people maybe have lost some fitness, certainly race fitness, so maybe the times aren't going to move a lot. In both cases, we've into a totally new paradigm and it will be hard to use past history to tell us what the qualifying cutoff will look like for 2021 (if there is a race) and in 2022.

And as to the date, I think they have an 80% chance of it happening. And to the extent it doesn't, its only 6 months to the regular date in 2022, which seems like it would definitely go. Although, with all the planning involved, running the race twice in 6 months will have its own set of challenges.

Maybe - like The Jedi - it's time for The Cult of Boston to end?

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

The day after Chicago, another World Marathon Major. I’m surprised that “they” allowed these two races to be scheduled like this. I’m planning to run both....

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

In fairness, there is more than enough demand for both races so that the considerations of the very small cohort you belong to aren't going to drive decision making.

The other thing about Boston, being traditionally on a Monday, Oct 11 is really the only feasible Fall date as it is a Monday holiday*. Assuming business is back to normal, logistically they cannot run a Monday race if it is a regular business day. And Labor Day is too major of a holiday (and also probably risks being too warm), so much like Patriots day, this October holiday is not full blown, but schools and most state and local government is closed.

*much like that Washington football team, we say the name of this holiday with peril these days;)

you can still say columbus day....

but it's more fun to not say it and imply you are being silenced based on fear of character assassination by the radical left;)

"Pending local regulations".... sure looks like they don't have permits yet. I wonder if my BQ-4:40 would be any good though? Tempted to apply, but I am super skeptical.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

If they do have it, I don’t think you’ll have the huge field that is normally associated with the race as well as the crowds. That said, on a nice fall day it would be perfect. There are already some great fall marathons in the area (Bay State, Cape Cod to name a few) that on a good crisp fall day are even better.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

How do the organizers safely bus 30,000 people to the race start 20 miles out of town? Assume everyone wears masks on the bus... can they assume the liability of cramming 60 runners x 500 busses?

Do they ask everyone to find their own way to to the start?