Guess the cutoff time for the 2019 Boston Marathon
It’s that time of year again, Boston Marathon registration time, when runners all over the world obsess over whether their mBQ (maybe Boston Qualifying) time is fast enough to get them in the race.
The B.A.A. uses a “rolling admission” schedule, which allows the fastest athletes relative to the nominal qualifying standard for their age and gender to register first. When the race fills up, the BAA determines a “cutoff” time. Everyone whose mBQ time is faster than the cutoff for their age group gets in.
For example, for the 2018 Boston Marathon, the cut-off for qualifying times was drawn at those who beat their qualifying standard by 3 minutes and 23 seconds or faster (cutoff times from other years can be found here). If you only beat your qualifying standard by 3:22, well, too bad. Try again next year.
This can create a certain amount of anxiety among runners. What better way to help kill time while waiting to see if you get in than by trying to figure out the cutoff time ahead of time?
The rules are simple. Using the form below, enter your name, email address, and best guess at the cutoff time for registration for the 2019 marathon. Additional rules:
Your entry must be submitted by 9pm ET, Sunday September 9th.
Only one entry per email address. Multiple entries will be discarded
Ties will be broken by random selection from the winning entrants
All decisions of MathematicalRunner.com staff are final
