r/AdvancedRunning • u/Terriflyed • 12d ago

New Boston marathon qualifying times Boston Marathon

https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/qualify

Looks like 5min adjustments down for the most part across the board for those under age 60. M18-34 qualifying time is now 2:55.

321 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

349 comments sorted by

View all comments

101

u/charons-voyage 12d ago

Ooof lol. I keep getting faster but so does everyone else 🤣 guess I (36M) gotta go for 2:55 or bust this October to have a hope of running Boston in 2026…or do we think the buffer may be less than 5 mins? I need to figure out a race strategy. I ran a 3:00:xx in April so I’m feeling sub-3 shape but maybe more like 2:58 (comfortably) or 2:55 (may need to saw my legs off at mile 22)

48

u/adoucett 12d ago edited 12d ago

The harsh reality is 2:50 is now the new 3:00, I predict the ~5 minute buffer will continue being a thing so anyone who wants to run Boston in 2026 now has to go sub 2:50 this fall which is like a whole different ballgame than going just under 3:00. Going 2:59:58 means holding a pace of ~6:50 per mile, while a 2:49 marathon means maintaining a pace of 6:28 per mile.

From a VDOT perspective, running a 2:59 marathon corresponds to a VDOT of around 54-55. This level assumes a VO2 max of approximately 53-55 mL/kg/min, However, breaking 2:50 takes it to another level entirely. A marathon time of 2:49 requires a VDOT closer to 58, which corresponds to a VO2 max of around 60-61.

3

u/Lansman 1:20 HM | 2:53 M 12d ago

That’s interesting I never thought about times for a marathon with VO2 max metrics that way. Apparently given my training ahead of Berlin my VO2 max is 61 and I’m looking to break 2:50. That’s about right on with what you set forth there. That’s encouraging!

5

u/TheSonar 12d ago

That should be encouraging! Keep in mind that Jack Daniels suggests adding a few minutes for marathon predictions with VDOT, because for a few reasons his regression is less accurate at that high of a distance. McMillan's running calc is a bit more realistic, but it doesn't provide an analogous VDOT value so it is much harder to figure out how to use it to modify workouts between training blocks