Qualifying for Boston at the Boston Marathon

Most runners who compete in the Boston Marathon had to run a qualifying time to earn their spot at the starting line each April in Hopkinton. (20,081 qualifiers were accepted for the 2012 race; a few thousand others will participate with a charity entry).

You might expect that most of those who ran a qualifying time to get to Boston would also finish with a similarly qualifying time. Not the case, by a long shot.

We analyzed the complete results of 22,800 finishers of the 2010 Boston Marathon, and found that only 42% qualified for Boston, at Boston. The remaining 58% ran slower than the qualifying standard that they had met to get to Boston in the first place.

Of course, the data vary slightly by race division and by age, so we've run the numbers, and here are the results of those who qualified for Boston at Boston, and those who did not, along with the average times by division or group.

For more, see our complete Boston Marathon Coverage and Qualifying for Boston.