Boston Marathon: How Much Harder is it to Run a Qualifying Time?



In response to increasingly overwhelming demand to enter the Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association revised qualifying times, lowering the standard by 5 minutes for all age groups hoping to race in 2013.


The immediate question on the minds of those with hopes for qualifying for Boston was: what will be the impact on the number of runners who meet the new qualifying limits?

The short answer: the percent fell from 13% in 2011 to 8% in 2012. The trends between 2003 and 2013:
  • 2003 to 2005: 7% to 8%
  • 2006 to 2007: 11%
  • 2008 to 2011: 12% to 13%
  • 2012 to 2013 (new 5-minute faster time): 8%


The major change between 2011 and 2013 did not diminish demand to enter Boston.

Those who ran qualifying times in 2013, 3,000 were turned away, and the actual times accepted runners ran was 1 minute, 38 seconds or faster than the standard.

We've run the numbers for the last 11 years, overall and by the largest marathons, to determine the change in number of athletes running qualifying times over the years.
















How Long Does it Take to Finish Ironman Kona? It Really Depends; Average Finish Times by Age Group 2002 to 2013

How Long Does it Take to Finish Ironman Kona? There's really no easy answer; our analysis from 2002 to 2013 shows finish times can vary by a full hour. We know from personal experience, having finished Kona in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

The extremes? In 2004, the average finish time was 12 hours 6 minutes; in 2013, the average was a full hour faster at 11:06. Same course, same world class athletes, roughly the same number of athletes.



How variable can finish times be from year to year? There's no real standard pattern; we don't see faster finish times each year. So what's the main difference? Kona's a blast furnace experience like no other triathlon in the world. It can crush you, or, in some years, the winds will be somewhat merciful; but it's never easy.

We've run the numbers for All Ironman Kona World Championships since 2002, and further segmented the annual average times by Age Group for each year. Here are the results of our analysis.





















For more, see our complete Ironman Kona Coverage, Qualifying for Kona, Kona Qualifying Race Schedule 2013/2014, our analysis of Top 30 Toughest/Easiest Ironman Events, and the site's archive of more than 200 Stats/Results/Analysis posts.


Racing For Charity Search Trends: Team in Training, Dana Farber, Komen Race for the Cure

In recent years, there has been a seemingly growing trend of athletes gaining entry to compete in major endurance events (Chicago Marathon, New York City Marathon, e.g.) via an official race charity. Team in Training (Leukemia), Dana-Farber (cancer, Boston-based) and Susan Komen Race for the cure are three popular racing charities.


However, it's possible interest in running for a charity may be on the decline. The 2013 New York City Marathon, for the first time in its history, failed to fill all possible charity entries; a remarkable 3,000 were unclaimed.  That's a huge number. For perspective, Boston and Chicago Marathons typically offer 5,000 charity entries each.

To get a better sense of the underlying trend, we turned to google search trends analysis, to see how interest in the three popular charities mentioned above has changed over time.

The answer in the first chart, above -- which presents the interest over time based on searches with the charity-related keywords -- appears to indicate a steadily declining trend. Is demand for racing via charity entry slowly fading? The New York Marathon experience is a distinctive example, and the chart seems to support that result.

Here's our Major Race Charity Search Trends: By Time, Geography, Keywords and Forecast analysis.

 Search Trends by State: Team in Training

  Search Trends by State: Dana Farber
  Search Trends by State: Komen Race for the Cure
 Top Searches: Team in Training
 Trending Upward Searches: Team in Training

 Top Searches: Dana Farber

Trending Upward Searches: Dana Farber
  Top Searches: Komen Race for the Cure

 Trending Up Searches: Komen Race for the Cure
 Top Searches by Metro Area: Team in Training

  Top Searches by Metro Area: Dana Farber
  Top Searches by Metro Area: Komen Race for the Cure

Search Trends 2004 to present with Forecast: 
Team in Training, Dana Farber, Komen Race for the Cure

For more, see our comprehensive coverage of Chicago Marathon, New York City Marathon, Boston Marathon, and our vast archive of more than 200 articles/analyses on our Stats/Results/Analysis page.

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