Episode 411: Planning and Problem Solving for Race Day

Before we get there, wanted to quickly chat about Boston.

The Boston Marathon changes relative to the new entry lottery, and I wanted to give you guys my perspective on that.

For those that-- for those runners who might not have been paying attention, Boston recently announced that in addition to their buffer process, which will happen as normal this year, they've added 1,000 spots that they're gonna give away to qualifiers who did not meet the buffer but who qualified and registered to join the race next April.

So they're gonna now take those that didn't make it via the buffer, which historically has been 3,000 to 5,000 or so qualifiers, and then draw from that group and pick 1,000 of them to make it into the race.

Now, these are 1,000 entries that are apparently, quote, "new entries." They're not taking away from the entries, entries that are slotted to charity runners or to runners that are getting in via the buffer process or any other process.

So these are new entries that they're now allocating in this way, and I've had a lot of people ask me my perspective on it.

I can tell you that I'm excited for it.

I, I'm thankful that they're creating another avenue for qualified runners to get into the race and to hopefully access the race even if they don't quite have that buffer.

And so for me, it's a good change.

I definitely have some input.

If anybody from BAA was listening or watching on the process, in particular, I would love to see them announce this group at the same time that they announce the buffer so that there's just one opportunity for everybody to find out who's in the race versus announce the buffer, create disappointment for those that didn't get in via the buffer, and then later, you know, one or two weeks or three weeks later, announce that 1,000-person group.

I suspect they'll go that route, but I would prefer if they're willing to just announce it all at once so you don't, so you then don't have two disappointment points for those that didn't get in via the buffer.

So I like it.

Now, there are some people that have been critical of the decision that have said, "Well, why wouldn't they just let the next 1,000 in based on the buffer process, and isn't that only fair that the next people in the descending order list make it into the race?" And you can make that argument, you can make that debate, and I understand why people might feel that way.

But for me, I like this new approach because it opens up access to those who might not be close to the buffer but who worked equally hard to get this goal.

There's a lot of people out there, and I coach some of them, who aren't necessarily as naturally talented, and therefore they have to work really, really hard to hit some of these standards and milestones.

And so that person who made a Boston qualifier by one second might in some ways work harder than the person that was able to get a 10-minute buffer qualifier because of the talent involved.

And that's not to minimize the work done by anybody who reaches a qualifier.

But based on the scale of talent there, some people are gonna have to work harder than others to just simply get that standard.

And that person who gets it by a second, who might have worked for years to do so, for them to now have an opportunity to get into the race through another pathway while they're still qualifiers, to me is part of what makes, hopefully part of what makes Boston great 'cause it just creates this opportunity for everybody to come together who's worked hard to achieve a standard, whether that be the qualifier or the charity runner.

So I like it.

It opens it up for those that don't get in through the standard descending order list.

And we're really only talking about probably for this year a five-minute range of qualifiers, those that are about five minutes under their qualifying standard to the qualifying standard.

That's probably the range we're talking about.

Online pro-pro-prognosticators are saying that the buffer's gonna be probably between five minutes and 5:30 based on the number of qualifiers they're seeing in races.