Historic Race Continues Making History

Marathon enthusiasts witnessed history today.

It is no longer news that races around the country are filling up in record time. Big and small races alike, such as the Chicago Marathon, Marine Corps Marathon and Steamtown Marathon to name a few – all filled up in record time this year, closing their registrations earlier than in previous years.

You can now add the Boston Marathon to that list.

Last Friday I read Bart Yasso’s comment on Facebook and agreed that it would fill up quickly.

“Registration for 2011 Boston Marathon to Open on Monday, October 18 B.A.A. anticipates unprecedented interest in 115th running; field is expected to fill quickly.”

On Friday evening I was speaking with Amby Burfoot and he told me they were projecting the marathon would close in one day.  My first thought was no way would it fill up in one day. Then I started to second guess myself. Was it possible, could this race really fill up that quickly?

Registration opened at 9:00 am eastern standard time and within the first hour the Boston Marathon’s Facebook page was slammed with complaints that upon clicking the Submit button, registrants were not proceeding to the confirmation page but to a blank registration page. This was quickly corrected, a new registration link was passed around the social media outlets and status updates started flying off the keyboards. “I got in!” the messages read.

The window of opportunity to register for the 115th Boston Marathon was a small one this year. In eight hours time registration for the Boston Marathon closed. Let me say that again: 8 hours! If you go to the BAA website you will see a message stating that registration is now closed.

The B.A.A. had this to say:

“Registration for the 2011 Boston Marathon opened at 9:00 a.m. (ET) this morning and closed at 5:03 p.m. (ET) This is the fastest the event has reached its field size limit in the 115 years of the world’s oldest annual marathon.”

You can now read some very upset status updates from runners who did not get in, and very happy updates from the runners that did. I ask you this: Didn’t we all know that something like this would happen this year?

Last year registration filled up only days before the Philadelphia Marathon. All of those Boston Qualifiers who ran Philly and subsequent marathons were bound to be some of the first to register today since they felt the sting of missing out on registration for the 2010 race. For months afterward, there was a lot of talk suggesting tightening up qualifying standards. Would they [B.A.A.*] do that? Would they raise the price? Would they increase the field size? All valid questions. None of this happened.

Now the question is, what is going to happen one year from now? Will they tighten up the qualifying standards for 2012 Boston Marathon?

*B.A.A. – Boston Athletic Association