2024 Boston Marathon Vlog ep. 01
Will we be lining up for the 2024 Boston Marathon this spring? To imply that you care about our running feels a bit conceited but this is a form of content that I like to consume by runners who I'm inspired by so maybe I can do the same for someone else I greatly appreciate everyone who's reached out over the last month asking if we've been accepted into the race you might know that back in May Jacob and I ran the Martha's Vineyard Marathon in 2 hours and 55 minutes which at the time was underneath the qualifying standard of three hours for my age group.
But you might also know that the BAA retroactively lowered that standard for everyone by 5 minutes and 29 seconds. So our standard then became 2:00 which we were not under. This cut 11,000 of the 33,000 qualified runners who thought they had run a sufficient time. That's leaving space in the field for charity runners and para athletes. At the time, none of the wheelchair duos knew what this meant for us some people were saying that we were subjected to the same cutoff time, others were saying that the duo division was handled separately. So we just kind of patiently waited over the last four weeks as the BAA verified our medical forms and our registrations.
But finally, four weeks later we found out yesterday that we were accepted into the 2024 Boston Marathon. It's been a little bit of a mixed bag of emotions ultimately if this was not our year to run I would have been perfectly fine. It won't be our last Marathon. I love running with Jacob and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon. And I don't mean to imply that we're not grateful to run this historic race, we very much are.
But I've always been adamant on meeting the same standard as my age group peers so to inadvertently get some degree of preferential treatment over those 11,000 runners who aren't making the cut doesn't sit particularly well with me. But we'll appreciate this opportunity and work hard to influence future decisions.
One way that I think the BAA can address this is by removing the 12 duo cap and treating us the same way as the regular applicants; maybe reserving three or four spaces for duos who want to run for a charity. Some years this might result in 10 duos participating other years maybe 15. I don't understand the entirety of the logistics of running an event on the scale but I would imagine if you can accommodate 12 duos and you can likely accommodate 15 as well. Hopefully some of the work that I do over the next couple of years improves a duo presence at events like the Boston Marathon and the Falmouth Road Race.
It's exciting to be a part of a growing field like this thanks to organizations like Team Hoyt, Ainsley's Angels, and My Team Triumph. We see world records being broken, races being won outright, but more importantly, we are becoming a part of a conversation with influential figures on how to make road races more inclusive and accessible. I'm grateful to be a part of that, it's way more important than any finishing times.
If you're interested in following along with our training, you can find me on Strava. I hope to find time in my schedule to make videos that provide insight into our training a weekly occurrence. In the next one, I'll share more information about how you can train alongside us as we prepare for the Boston Marathon this spring. Thank you for following along