Changes in Boston Marathon Qualifying Behavior Post-Boston 2013


Everyone expects that there will be an increased demand for entries to the 2014 Boston Marathon after the events on the most recent Patriots Day.  Back in May, I wrote that because of weather and time constraints, I didn’t expect to see a massive increase in the number of runners trying to qualify in the summer.  While we all wait for the BAA to announce the size of the 2014 field, I thought I’d take a look at whether the numbers back me up.

Using the Boston Qualifying (BQ) data from MarathonGuide.com, I was able to compare the results for 2012 and 2013 from 12 races occurring between Boston and the time when registration for the following year opened.

BQ-sept9

What’s interesting is that while the number of finishers increased from one year to the next, the percentage of runners who qualified increased at a much higher rate. A mathematician certainly wouldn’t call this data statistically significant, but it might indicate that those who ran summer marathons were more focused on hitting their BQ time.

(Update: The numbers for Santa Rosa and Via have been added and the BQ count for Vancouver (BC) has been fixed since the original post.

84% of the increase in finishers in these 12 races is due to runners flocking to the last/best chance races of Santa Rosa and Via.

Keep in mind that Marathon Guide tracks finishers – the numbers don’t show how many runners dropped out during the race, and how many never showed up at all.  I talked to officials at Santa Rosa and Via, who reported about 30% no-shows, well over the typical rate of around 18%.  Apparently, lots of registrants knew they had no chance to BQ, so they didn’t bother to run.)

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