The BAA makes a decision and runners around the world freak out!
Today my twitter feed exploded with #BAA hashtags. My inbox was similarly inundated. Oblivious until I got home from work, the running world changed while I sat at my desk. For the two of you who haven’t heard, the Boston Athletic Association announced the much anticipated adjustments to the qualifying standards. In brief, there are three key changes:
1. Effective in 2012 is a rolling registration system, with faster times giving you earlier access to registration. No more first come first served. Instead, fastest first. This is a new “performance-based” process. There will be four waves, with those who beat their qualifying time by 20 minutes or more getting first dibs, then ten minutes, then five minutes, then everyone else. So the faster you are relative to your qualifying time the earlier you can register. If the race fills up before the final wave is reached registration closes and you are out of luck. During week two (if space permits), when registration opens to all qualifiers, entry order will be ranked based on time, so a 3.23 runners gets in ahead of a 3.24 runner. This adds an interesting element of uncertainty to your qualifying time – you may BQ, but ‘by how much’ now really matters. Will wave one fill all slots? Wave one and two? You won’t know until registration week if your qualifying time will get you a spot before the inevitable sell-out.
2. Effective in 2013 all times for all categories will drop by 5 minutes. And 59 seconds (that’s right, no more grace period). Truthfully, I was expecting deeper cuts. Especially for women and masters runners. I’m a little surprised the same 30 minute gender differential and the big 15 minute age jumps remain. Much ado has been made about the alleged unfairness to young men and I suspect this decision will not sit well with a subset of that cohort (i.e. the subset who can’t qualify).
3. Registration will take place over a fixed two-week period in mid September (September 12-23 in 2011), so the big fall races will be too late in the year for the following spring. As expected, the qualifying window is also now only one year – from September to September. No more double dipping with those fall races. If you ever wanted to organize an August Marathon, now is the time!
What does this all mean for me? Or you? If you want to register in wave one in 2012 you need to run 20 minutes under the current standard and in 2013 you need to run 25 minutes under the current standard (20 minutes under the new standard).
I may get hate mail, but I’m okay with these changes. Not everyone who qualifies got in under the old system, not everyone who qualifies will get in under the new system. I would rather my chances be dependent on my performance than my server that day. Boston is supposed to be a competitive race, so if I get locked out by faster runners I can’t complain. Now if you need me, I’ll be at the track.
Title: David Bowie – Changes. 1971.
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I thought I found them. I was wrong. Physio-appointment wrong. 10-minute running shoe buying is not recommended. 3-hour running shoe buying isn’t working for me either. 
