A special thanks this year to Sports Editor Jim Henry for the time and effort he spent covering the Tallahassee and surrounding area runners who participated in the 2019 Boston Marathon.  

Henry identified 22 runners who qualified for Boston, submitted an application and received a race number. Only 16 actually finished, although the non-finishers likely never made it to the starting line. It was the 129th running of the Boston Marathon. It was also Jack McDermott’s 18th straight year running the event. In 1897, 18 people started the first Boston Marathon and 10 finished it. It has been run every year since except for 1918 when the horror of the war caused the race to be cancelled.  

Everyone on the list has their own story of overcoming hardship to get to Boston and to complete the marathon. That is just one of the many reasons this event is so special to so many people. Somehow, I still have a small strip of newspaper – from the 1986 Tallahassee Democrat — that has survived more than 30 years.

On the left side, the names and times of the top 68 finishers, including the men’s champion, Rob de Castilla from Australia, and women’s champion, Ingrid Kristiansen from Norway.

They were running legends and finished in 2:07:51 and 2:24:55. The thought of getting to compete in the same event they were competing in (even if I finished more than 40 minutes behind the men’s winner) was spectacular. On the right side of this narrow piece of newspaper print are the names and finish times of the Tallahassee finishers of the marathon – J. Scott Hinkle, Felton Wright, Larry Giunipero, John Hasselbart, Bill Hillison, David Yon and Bill Jordan. The times ranged from 2:45:21 to 3:23:40.

 

 

 

There are many things that draw a runner to a particular marathon. Obviously, the quality of the event itself is important; well organized events get a head start as do races with great views and fun courses. The journey from the small community of Hopkinton to the heart of Boston is like no other.  

Boston also is unique in that runners must “qualify” to apply to run the marathon.  While there are exceptions (sponsors, runners raising money for charities, etc.), since 1971 runners have been required to run a qualifying marathon faster than a designated qualifying time. The qualifying times and methods have changed over the years.  In 1970, the application stated:

“A runner must submit the certification of either the Long Distance Running chairman of the Amateur Athletics Union of his district or his college coach that he has trained sufficiently to finish the course in less than four hours. This is not a jogging race.” 

The qualifying time was cut to 3:30 in 1970. Runners could however demonstrate in the last year they had run ten miles in 65 minutes or under; 15 miles in 1:45, or 20 miles in 2:30.  The primary purpose of the qualifying times has always been to maintain the number of participants at a level the Boston Athletic Association believed to be supportable given the resources available.  For a number of years that was 1,000 runners.  The first qualifying times were implemented after the number of participants grew from 197 in 1960 to 447 in 1965 and 1,342 in 1969. 

Qualifying times now are adjusted for gender and age. For example, a male between the ages of 60 and 64 must run faster than 3 hours and 50 minutes to be given a race number, while a female, age 30-34 must run faster than 3 hours and 30 minutes.  And that does not guarantee entry.  The instructions for applying for Boston contain the following underlined statement:

Achieving one’s qualifying standard does not guarantee entry into the event, but simply the opportunity to submit for registration.

If the total amount of submissions surpasses the allotted field size for qualified athletes, then those who are the fastest among the pool of applicants in their age and gender group will be accepted.

And, in fact, for the 2019 race, 30,458 applications were timely submitted with qualifying times and 23,074 were accepted.  That means 7,384 qualified applicants were turned away.  On average runners had to run 4 minutes and 52 seconds faster than their qualifying times to get in.  As a result, the times for 2020 have been reduced by an average of 5 minutes.

The qualifying marathon for the 2020 Boston Marathon must be run on or after September 15, 2018.  It will most likely end in September of 2019.    

Marathon favorites may also be created by time and place.  My first opportunity to run Boston was 1986.  I had to run an 8-minute personal best to meet the standard and I was very happy when it happened.  A lot of my motivation came from reading about the history of the race. Now 123 years old, the 1986 race was number 90.  The experience was beyond any other running experience I had ever known.

From walking the Freedom Trail in Boston to being bused out to the small town of Hopkinton, where runners huddled in the gymnasium waiting for a call to the start line.

The women of Wellesley formed their “scream tunnel” as they cheered the runners on and in a day where we worried less about terrorism, they funneled the runners down to a single lane while yelling encouragement and throwing kisses. The crowds all along the way were amazing and loud, but turning onto Boylston Street for the final quarter mile is the most amazing experience. I could not hear anything. 

Congratulations to everyone who made it to the start line and the finish line.  You may not have topped Herb Wills 10th place finish in 1989 (top American finisher with a time of 2:17:40), but from afar, it looks like you had a great time. 

David Yon is addicted to running. In his spare time, he is an attorney with the Radey Law Firm.

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