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BQ stories: missing the mark

We spoke with three Canadian runners about their experience attaining — and then losing — their Boston qualification

In early May, organizers of the Boston Marathon announced they would be hosting an in-person race in October, but due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the field size would be restricted to 20,000 participants. Not only is this a sizeable decrease from previous years, but it also resulted in the biggest time cutoff in the event’s history. Runners hoping to qualify for the storied race now needed to run at least 7:47 faster than their age group qualifying times if they wanted a spot on the start line, which left more than 9,000 runners disappointed. We spoke with a few Canadian runners who found themselves in this position to get their take on the situation.

Boston Marathon security

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Jamie Barlow qualified for Boston when he ran the 2018 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. At that point, the time cutoff for his age category was 3:10. In 2019 the qualifying time was lowered for the second time since 2013 to 3:05, and luckily Barlow’s time in Toronto still got him the BQ — if only by a hair. Of course, the 2020 race was cancelled, but during that time he turned 40, which gave him those five minutes back. Since he was still allowed to use his original qualifying time, he thought the extra time would give him a better chance of getting in, but it didn’t work out that way. With the field size capped at 20,000, Barlow missed the mark by just under a minute.

“I was a little bit disappointed, but I think it’s fair,” he tells us. “It would have been cool to run this year with races just coming back, a reduced field, a different time… it’s kind of a one-off opportunity to experience it like that.”

Carol McFarlane ran her first Boston Marathon in 2018 after only running one previous marathon. The weather that year was cold and rainy, and her race didn’t go the way she’d hoped. Originally she didn’t have any plans to run it again, but after some time she decided she had unfinished business in Boston. She ran another qualifying time in 2019, but felt she was on the bubble even before the pandemic changed things. She was thrilled when she qualified for the 2020 race, and like many others, was devastated when the event was cancelled. She participated in the virtual race instead, and describes the experience as “top notch.”

When the announcement came that there would be an in-person race in October 2021, McFarlane applied again, but the cutoff time for her age bracket was nearly five minutes faster than the time she qualified with originally. Her plan is to try to get a spot in the April 2022 event.

Photo: Boston marathon (Facebook)

“It was disappointing because I made it there for 2020 — I worked hard to get there,” she says. “I feel really excited and fortunate that my group and I made history by running the virtual 2020 Boston, and I would have been so tickled pink to make history again by probably going to the only Boston Marathon they’re ever going to have in October.”

As a 31-year-old, Steph Boutette’s time of 3:26 gave her a four-minute buffer to qualify for the 2021 race, but it wasn’t enough. Unlike McFarlane, Boutette didn’t think the October race was going to give her the experience she wanted, which softened the blow.

“The big crowds, friends and family being able to come and cheer — we don’t know if there will be any restrictions on that,” she explains, “so I think I’m OK with knowing it’s not my time right now.”

Like many others, Barlow, McFarlane and Boutette were initially dissppointed they didn’t get in to the Boston Marathon, but in typical runner fashion, all three of them have taken it in stride (pun intended!), and will lace up their shoes and try again another year.

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