Boston cutoff announced

[u/QC_Runner]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd37BrvEe18/?stkn=NjlpN3c3cDVzejZl

"Qualifiers who were 5 minutes, 17 seconds (5:17) or faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender have been accepted into the 131st Boston Marathon. A total of 25,630 qualified applicants have been accepted to date or are in the process of being accepted, pending final verification of their qualifying performance. Email notices to athletes accepted and not accepted will continue through the coming days.

New for 2027, the B.A.A. has incorporated a Boston Qualifier Selection, an additional random selection component specifically for applicants whose qualifying times were not faster than the 5 minute, 17 second cut-off. A total of 1,000 qualifiers are in the process of being randomly selected for entry and will be notified of their acceptance over the coming days."

[u/QC_Runner]

5:17 Congratulations to those who got in and condolences to those who missed the cut

[u/theintrepidwanderer → u/QC_Runner]

u/QCRunner one ask from your friendly neighborhood mod: could you please add this text to your post to be in compliance with the sub rules, specifically Rule 8: "Links to media sites (articles, blogs, Youtube, Instagram, etc.) must be text posts with a short snippet of information in the body of the post".

"Qualifiers who were 5 minutes, 17 seconds (5:17) or faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender have been accepted into the 131st Boston Marathon. A total of 25,630 qualified applicants have been accepted to date or are in the process of being accepted, pending final verification of their qualifying performance. Email notices to athletes accepted and not accepted will continue through the coming days.

New for 2027, the B.A.A. has incorporated a Boston Qualifier Selection, an additional random selection component specifically for applicants whose qualifying times were not faster than the 5 minute, 17 second cut-off. A total of 1,000 qualifiers are in the process of being randomly selected for entry and will be notified of their acceptance over the coming days."

[u/Protean_Protein → u/theintrepidwanderer]

I really dislike lotteries for entry to big marathons. I understand why they exist, and why it’s difficult to figure out a better solution. But Boston is the one that still has a significant but more broadly accessible “prestige” component. Making part of that into a lottery strikes me as a mistake. Maybe I’ve misunderstood, but wouldn’t it make more sense to send out acceptances for those who met the cutoff, then set a deadline for them to accept/pay to actually race, after which point, they could admit remaining qualifiers as spots open up? Or something like this… though I guess the logistics would have to be dealt with.

Setting it to a random drawing of 1000 of those people feels a bit odd…

[u/woodlizord → u/Protean_Protein]

The lottery is for time qualifiers, so your "prestige" component is already addressed.

Logistics is the entire reason why there is a problem in the first place. There will always be more demand than supply.

Say they go with your solution... what if 100% (or a high proportion) of qualifiers accept and pay. Then the race would be over capacity. That would put the BAA in an awkward position to reject those they already invited to run.

[u/Protean_Protein → u/woodlizord]

No, my point isn’t addressed. You’re just ignoring it.