I had a dreary, damp run with tired legs this morning, but the saddest part of my run was discovering the tear in the pouch on my water bottle belt. I get sentimental about my gear. That belt has provided comfort for me on hundreds of runs. I’m sorry to see it’s finally fallen apart.
Oh, who am I kidding? Time for a shopping trip!
The BAA announced this week that spots are still available in the 2013 Boston Marathon for qualified runners. The new, more stringent qualifying standards for 2013 succeeded in preventing the race from filling up during the two week rolling registration process so registration will remain open until the race is filled.
It’s not clear exactly how many spots remain. According to a Boston Globe article, 18,300 qualified runners have already been accepted, and there are “hundreds” of additional applications in the queue waiting for approval. In the past, Boston has accepted somewhere around 21,000 qualifiers (the remainder of the field is filled out by charity runners, politicians, celebrities, and BAA supporters). So there are probably somewhere around 2000 slots still open.
How long will it take Boston to fill up? My guess is registration will close before I run Cape Cod at the end of October. There are more fall marathons than ever before. According to MarathonGuide.com, there are over 100 marathons in the US between now and Cape Cod. That includes some big races that typically have lots of qualifiers, like Chicago, Portland, and St. George. Add in the international races like Berlin, Auckland, and Frankfurt, and I expect Boston 2013 will close out well before October 28th.
However, the fact that Boston didn’t close out during rolling registration bodes well for 2014. All I have to do now is run that BQ.
(7.8 mi. run; 147.5#)
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