BQ at Disney

Redemption and Rewards

After I bonked out at Marine Corp I new I wasn't ready to throw in the towel on marathon season just yet.  Plus, I knew I had the fitness and speed there and wasn't ready to let that go yet either.  So I found a winter marathon, the Walt-Disney World Marathon.  Run in January, it typically has cold dry weather, perfect racing conditions (just don't tell that to the native Floridians, they think its freezing).

This meant 2 more months of training, coming back, building back up to a 20 mile long run, and then tapering again for the race.  This was a big mental test, a lot of solo running as most of my training friends were finishing up their fall marathons and enjoying a break from running.  I persevered and felt fresh when I made it to Orlando.

Race: Disney Marathon
Date: January 9th, 2011
Finish Time: 3:09:39

Recap:  This was a great race if you want a fast time and great organization - however, and I can't stress this enough, if you are looking for the cutesy, Disney fanfare, and destination marathon festivities travel elsewhere.  Of the 26.2 miles maybe 5 of them were through Disney theme parks, the rest were on access roads or other not-exciting pavement.  It also starts at 6:00am, the earliest start I had seen for a Marathon, which means you are waking up before 4:00am.  Still, if you can tough it out and time things right it shouldn't be a problem.  Oh, and due to the early start it was still pitch black out until mile 10 and not full of sunlight until the half-marathon mark.  These are all asides - it was the perfect race for me - cold and flat as a pancake, well-organized corrals, and reliable pace groups.

A cold and dark start - the flames felt great!

Overexcited Disney Characters

I ran with the 3:10 pace group.  As expected, this group started off with about 75 people, then would slowly dwindle down by mile 20 to about 30 runners.  At this point I made a move to speed up and cut a minute off of my time, but I saw the pace group finish a minute later (still just under the 3:10:59 mark) with only about 15 runners.

Mile 4,with the 3:10 pace group.  Still pitch black out.

Running through the Magic Kingdom, about 19 miles in.

Finally Done.  Can't describe how good it felt!

I can't describe how good it finally felt to not only meet my goal, but beat it (just barely).  Coming in a minute under your goal time is way different than a minute behind, even if the time difference is basically negligible.  This was my BQ (Boston Qualifier) - like a lot of people I wasn't even that excited to run the Boston Marathon, more just happy to be in the "BQ Club".  Good thing, as the geniuses at the Boston Athletic Association had other plans for me...

Posing with my awesome girlfriend after.

First a BQ - later a DQ

I cannot express my frustration and disappointment with the Boston Athletic Association, who (at least in my mind) already had an image of an elitest organization that does what they want, when they want.   So, I reached my goal in obtaining the Boston Qualifier time of under 3:10:59 in January of 2011.  That spring when the BAA started realizing that their race is filling up too fast they decided to come up with a backup plan.  Just that they were filling up was a joke in the first place, as it isn't filling up with fast runners, but with special entry and charity participants (read: people who donate lots of money to the BAA).  So their solution was that for the 2013 race all qualification standards would be lowered by 5 minutes, and for the 2012 race they would have a sliding scale accepting faster times first.

Basically, they unqualified my BQ as the cut-off ended up being around 3:07 for the 2012 race.  Even worse, being that they are the supposed authority on marathons they should know that you don't simply go out and "run as fast as you can", you train for and race for a specific time, targeting splits to hit that time.

It wasn't the end of the world, just a point of frustration - now I'm not even sure i'll ever want to do Boston!  There are others that share my opinion on the BAA.  In fact, The Gansett Marathon (formerly the Exetor Marathon) in Rhode Island was started by a group of folks in New England who got fed up with the hoopla and back-door entries to Boston and wanted a true race for elites - "the only marathon in the USA, outside of the Olympic marathon Trials, where qualification is the ONLY means of entry."  Now this I might check into someday!