April 17, 2006 saw the 110th running of the Boston Marathon. While Boston is 110 years old there were some changes made to this year?s race that made it ?new? again. To accommodate for growing crowds, swelling registrants and other logistical issues for the first time ever there was a wave start for the general field. The elite women took their customary 11:31am start, which is designed to showcase the women?s race. At noon, the first half of the field, those qualifying in 3:30 and faster headed out leaving the back 10 000 runners, those qualifying in over 3:30 or those given a free pass (non-qualifiers) to start at 12:30.
Not many down sides to this new practice outside of the purists who simply don?t like change. Boston was having an issue getting 20 000 runners to the staging area in Hopkinton and then to the start line on time without trashing the surrounding neighbourhoods. The 30 minute wave was determined by the amount of time it took the 20 000th runner to cross the start line (thank goodness for the invention of timing chips). The upside is you don?t have to leave Boston quite so early to get to Hopkinton AND if you are in the second wave, you are now at the front of the start line with no one to hold you up at the gun!
In this year?s race there were 22473 starters and 19688 finishers, not sure what happened to the other 2785 runners but we know it wasn?t the weather that took them. With a high in the 50?s or 16ish by the finish which Runners World lists as the perfect temperature for setting a PR (personal record). This fact was illustrated in the winning times, 2:07:14 by men?s winner Robert Cheruiyot and 2:23:08 by women?s winner Rita Jeptoo, both of Kenya.
Locally Quinte was well represented with eight runners, Boyd Kalnay (3:12:15), Jonathon Peever (3:32:00), Laurna Boulay (3:50:51), Sharon Voteary (3:52:11), Ben Luttjeboer (3:52:58), Jane Moodey (3:56:05), John Hodgson (4:02:28) and Tracey Hatheway (4:07:09). The most populated age category is 40-49 with 7809 runners versus 10058 in the 18 to 39 age group. Interestingly, six of our local eight were over 40.
If you have been toying with the thought of qualifying for a coveted Boston spot, you can find your required time at
www.bostonmarathon.org. Note that if you qualify in a race held between the last weekend of September and the next running of Boston, your qualification is good for two years. Also note that your qualifying time is based on the age you will be the day you RUN Boston, not your age when qualifying. This means that if you are woman who is 38 when you run the PEC Marathon on October 1, 2006, and you will turn 40 before Boston in 2008 you need to qualify with a time of 3:50:59. Yes you have a 59 second window over the posted qualifying time to account for timing errors.
