I just ran a marathon in 3:30:33 and my BQ time for 2026 is 3:30. Can I still apply for an entry? Or, if I’m over I’m over and try again?
Give it a shot; what’s the worst that could happen?
Pretty sure you need to be at or below the qualifying time and the cut off if there is one. I think when there’s no cut off they just accept all qualifiers that entered. I’ve ran it a couple times. I’m no authority on it, but that’s my understanding.
Yeah, meeting the BQ is the first part; then there’s the cut-off
That part always confounds me
“The BQ is 3:30, but cut-off says you have to beat it by 3 minutes”
So why don’t they just say “the BQ is 3:27?”
Being as close as they are, they probably won’t make the cut-off
Cut off is decided after deadline based on entries
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I keep forgetting that part, thanks for the reminder
Yes, the cut off is confusing. You tried over and over again for 10 years to run a BQ and when you get it you immediately start making plans to travel with the half dozen other people from your running club who have a BQ. You make hotel reservation, you sign up for the private bus to the start line, etc. Then you have to put your application in 6 months later and wait another 2 months after that to see what the cut-off is to see if you get in.
Some years there are only 27,000 people who apply for the 30,000 spots in the Boston Marathon and so everyone who has a BQ gets in. Other years 36,000 people apply and they have to turn away 6,000 people who have a BQ. The cut off is determined by how many people apply to run the race. Yes, you have to make the BQ time to apply. If you don’t have a BQ you have zero chance of having your application accepted. In 2021 they had a reduced field of 20K due to covid so the cut off time was almost 8 minutes. With a BQ time of 3:30 you would have needed a 3:22 to have your application accepted. They did an April and October race the following years. I know a few people that did both and the year after the double races lots of people were good on their Boston Fix and didn’t apply so they had fewer than the 30,000 applicants and everyone got in. Choose an unpopular race year if you don’t have a big cushion on you BQ time. You will eventually get in and when you do, it will be that much sweeter after all the work you have putting into making the selection.
Zero chance of getting in. They might not even accept your entry
It’s looking like the cut will be 5 min plus again
As I’ve said before, my ingrained dislike for all things Boston means that even if I did BQ, I wouldn’t bother to attempt an entry
Thank you all for the information and insights! I’ll start looking for another race and try again, should be able to shave a couple minutes somewhere
You aren’t the only one. They are 30,000 people every year who have Boston Qualifying times that don’t apply to run run the race and many don’t have any ambitions to. At the finish line of a marathon people will ask you how your race went and what your time was. Some people when hearing that you got a time that they know is a BQ they will said congratulations enjoy Boston. What they should ask is if you were trying to qualify for Boston or if you have any ambitions to run Boston. Boston is the who’s who of Marathon running. You have people there from every state in the union and from all around the world. When you line up you are shoulder to shoulder with people who were first place over all at the marathon they qualified at, people who were first place over all Masters, people who have a top 100 Abbott world age group ranking, etc. It is pretty cool to run with that type of a field.