To BQ or not to BQ

An analysis of the Implications of the new Boston Qualification (BQ) Times for 2020 Boston Marathon.

barrysmyth
Running with Data

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Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is a long-standing goal for many marathoners. To qualify runners must achieve a gender and age related cut-off time in a qualifying marathon. For example, 45–49 year old men need to beat 3 hours and 25 minutes to be in with a shot of qualifying. However, the high demand for participation in the fabled Boston Marathon is such that achieving your BQ standard is not a guarantee for entry, and in recent years increasingly many qualifying runners have been excluded due to limits on participation numbers. For example, a recent Runners World article highlights that, on average, runners had to beat their qualification times by an additional 4 minutes and 52 seconds in order to gain entry into next year’s (2019) race, and consequently more than 7,000 ‘qualifying’ runners who applied could not be accommodated.

Every year, the Boston Athletics Association (BAA) evaluates registration data and reviews the appropriateness of qualifying standards. And every so often qualification times are adjusted (typically tightening them) in line with demand. They were last adjusted for the 2013 race, and in the last week they have been adjusted once more, this time for the 2020 race, by making each age group’s…

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barrysmyth
Running with Data

Professor of Computer Science at University College Dublin. Focus on AI/ML and data science with applications in e-commerce, media, and health.