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Much of the hullaballoo over the B.A.A. Boston Marathon qualification standards for the various age groups breaks down to smart marketing, executed with near-perfect timing.
The talk recently on the lips of the age-group bucket-listers has been about nothing else, but Boston.
For those who want to do the six and possibly soon-to-be seven Marathon Major events, Boston will always be in the conversation. However, bumping the standards, around application time, was smooth marketing that brought the race to the top of the Monday morning watercooler conversation.
With the current running boom going on, especially with the younger ages and novices, the time is ripe to create a fevered pitch.
Boston is the oldest marathon. Also, there are the screaming girls at Wellesley College, the impending doom of Heartbreak Hill and the legendary battles that have taken place in Beantown. It all makes for iconic status that is richly deserved.
Boston is not the only iconic race
Boston is not the only marathon to bucket list.
To start, there are five other Marathon Majors: London, Tokyo, New York, Chicago, and Berlin. Sydney is peacocking for their inclusion into the Majors too. Four of them offer some of the fastest courses anywhere in the world. New York is Gotham, what’s not to love — the hills are alive with the sound of cheering.
Many world records have been set in Chicago, London and Berlin. They are massive, big cities brimming with culture waiting to be explored in the shoulder seasons.
At the end of the day, the race distance is 42.195 kilometres or 26 miles 385 yards.
Outside of the Majors, there are several marathons worth considering for speed, beauty, culture and iconic status.
Paris, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Flying Pig, Grandma’s and Royal Victoria Marathon. Or Albatross Marathons which includes several unique race venues including locations in Greenland or on the Great Wall of China. There is the Inca Trail Marathon or one in the Antarctic. There is the San Sebastian Marathon, Venice or Valencia.
Valencia has rapidly grown in popularity due to its fast course, where world records have been set. Scheduled for early December it competes on the calendar with the Fukuoka Marathon, Vegas Marathon and California International Marathon or “CIM.”
Your PB cannot be from Boston
As the Boston event runs point-to-point and has a net drop in elevation of more than 1 metre per kilometre, Boston cannot be used as a qualifier for records or standards. The Monday morning watercooler conversation does allow you to wax on about running a pb in Boston, as your fellow office workers do not know the difference, but you will know. So, if you run Boston well, keep on training and do it again on a course that can be used for records and standards.
Also, the start and finish areas must be located no more than 25 per cent of the race distance apart (hence, the point-to-point issue). Being laid out point-to-point, athletes may benefit from a tailwind year. Boston is not as hard as you think it is. Sure, if not executed well, the hills can be an issue, but the course lends itself to fast times.
Your personal best among friends may be from Boston, but because of the above reasons, Boston’s results do not count. Yes, the distance is 42.195 kilometres, but you may have benefited in a way that you may not elsewhere.
In that case, if you cannot get into the Boston Marathon, why not try out the CIM? The race runs point to point and offers a net downhill that also makes the race not usable for qualification standards and records. Only the USATF allows results from CIM to qualify for the US Olympic and World Championship Trials.
While Boston surely deserves bucket-list status, it is just one of many great races that take place around the world.
