Made it into BAA's Racers' Record Book!

Nice surprise in the digital download I got in e-mail today.

Every year after the Boston Marathon, it's always somewhat interesting to see the photos the BAA includes in their Racers' Record Book that provides all of the coverage from the weekend's events, in addition to all of the finishing times. While plenty are expected -- all of the elites and the various age group winners -- the rest of us "ordinary" marathoners are also featured on occasion.

Given my record attempt this year, I decided to pre-order the book, just in case they put my attempt in there. (And to have yet another souvenir if/when the record is ratified.) Well, sure enough, they did.

While they allude to the potential record, they don't state outright that I set it because they can't (as I couldn't when contacting BAA for some of the evidence I'll want to use), because I still don't even have all of the requirements for the record sent to me -- hopefully those will arrive in the next few weeks and will coincide with what I actually did.

What's more, they gave a great full-page photo to one of the women who ran with me. (And you can see me/my outfit behind her.) It was a great jump for joy shortly after the last photo we made sure to take on-course at the "One Mile To Go" banner in Kenmore Square (just past the iconic Citgo sign) and right before she kicked it into high gear for the finish.

Wish Melissa good luck when she runs the Sydney Marathon next month. She will be pursuing her own Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon dressed in a traditional Chinese cheongsam (female). She's certainly plenty fit to make the time required (under 4:45:00). Hopefully the weather is cool enough and the hills aren't too difficult to handle in as tight an outfit as the cheongsam is.

Stay attuned to deals

While Amazon usually has pretty decent prices, every now and then the timing of deals from The Feed works really well for me.

Right now, they are running a 20% off deal on all chews, and that includes Clif Shot Bloks - my fuel of choice for any run longer than 10 miles. Given the box of 18 runs about $52 normally, getting each for about $42 is definitely a nice bargain -- several dollars less than what I can get via Amazon. And with my size order, I'm getting free shipping, so there's no bump up in cost there compared to my free Amazon Prime shipping.

I do miss the days where a box of 18 was in the mid-$30 range, though. Doubtful those will return again. :-(

Overseas Qualifying Standards

I remembered that getting into the overseas marathons was difficult, and one (London) isn't even possible for foreigners (in this case, non-UK residents) to get in via "Good For Age" times at all, but looking at the respective times is rather shocking to see HOW much more difficult time-qualifying is for the four overseas majors compared to the domestic US majors. So much so, that a comparable table isn't even really instructive. Only London has a similar increase of qualifying times for every 5-year age group after the first large group.

In order of the WMM season:

Tokyo: 

An extremely small number of overseas men and women (25 each) can get in with "semi-elite" times. Men of any age must be under 2hrs 28min, and women of any age must be under 2hrs 54min. The "average" runner's only chance of getting into Tokyo is via charity bib or lottery.

London:

	Men	Women
18-34	2hrs 52min	3hrs 38min
35-39	2hrs 52min	3hrs 38min
40-44	2hrs 57min	3hrs 43min
45-49	3hrs 02min	3hrs 46min
50-54	3hrs 07min	3hrs 53min
55-59	3hrs 12min	3hrs 58min
60-64	3hrs 34min	4hrs 23min
65-69	3hrs 52min	4hrs 53min
70-74	4hrs 52min	5hrs 53min
75-79	5hrs 07min	6hrs 13min
80-84	5hrs 27min	6hrs 38min
85-89	6hrs 10min	7hrs 10min
90+	7hrs 20min	7hrs 45min

But, as mentioned above, these Good For Age times are only available for UK residents' applications. And, at that, there are only 3,000 bibs for men and 3,000 for women qualifying with these times. Otherwise, it's lottery and charity. And, as alluded to yesterday, good luck getting in via the lottery. There are fewer than 50,000 bibs available via the lottery and over 1.1 million people who put their names in. And that pool seems to grow each year.

Sydney:

Men under 40 must be under 2hrs 35min, all others must be under 2hrs 50min. Women under 40 must be under 2hrs 55min, all others must be under 3hrs 10min. Unclear how many time-qualifying bibs there are. Apart from these and the number of bibs they have made available through 2027 for those of us in the Candidacy Club (we ran the marathon during one of its two years it was a WMM candidate race, and having a guaranteed entry is a perk), lottery and charity bibs are the way to go.

Berlin:

Men under 45 must be under 2hrs 45min, 45-59 must be under 2hrs 55min, and 60+ must be under 3hrs 25min. Women under 45 must be under 3hrs 10min, 45-59 must be under 3hrs 30min, and 60+ must be under 4hrs 20min. The main way most people get in, as with the others, is via lottery or charity.

Moral of the story: You need to be very committed if you plan on getting your 6-Star medal (and, eventually, 9-star, once the additional two races are set). Not only do you need to do all the ordinary travel logistics re: visas, flights, hotels, etc., but you need to navigate widely varied entry methods. It is definitely advisable to join one of the big Facebook groups dedicated to discussing the majors -- either the official Abbott group (AbbottWMM Six Star Journey) or one of the unofficial but immensely popular and helpful ones (World Marathon Majors Challenge). There are definitely others, but if you join either or both of these, you'll be in good stead for great information, tips, tricks, etc. on any of the seven majors.

Domestic Qualifying Standards

Chicago Marathon just came out with their time qualifying standards for 2026.  (Several weeks ago, Boston released adjustments to its newest standards based on net elevation loss.) And, believe it or not, Chicago's qualifying standards are mostly harder than Boston's. Below, I've cobbled together the standards for the Boston, Chicago, and New York City Marathon into one table. Those times in red are the toughest for men across the three races, and those in green are the toughest for women and non-binary across the three races.

	Boston	Boston	Chicago	Chicago	New York	New York
	Men	Women/Non-Binary	Men	Women/Non-Binary	Men	Women/Non-Binary
18-34	2hrs 55min	3hrs 25min	2hrs 50min*	3hrs 20min*	2hrs 53min	3hrs 13min
35-39	3hrs 00min	3hrs 30min	2hrs 55min	3hrs 25min	2hrs 55min	3hrs 15min
40-44	3hrs 05min	3hrs 35min	3hrs 00min	3hrs 30min	2hrs 58min	3hrs 26min
45-49	3hrs 15min	3hrs 45min	3hrs 10min	3hrs 40min	3hrs 05min	3hrs 38min
50-54	3hrs 20min	3hrs 50min	3hrs 15min	3hrs 50min	3hrs 14min	3hrs 51min
55-59	3hrs 30min	4hrs 00min	3hrs 25min	3hrs 55min	3hrs 23min	4hrs 10min
60-64	3hrs 50min	4hrs 20min	3hrs 40min	4hrs 15min	3hrs 34min	4hrs 27min
65-69	4hrs 05min	4hrs 35min	3hrs 55min	4hrs 30min	3hrs 45min	4hrs 50min
70-74	4hrs 20min	4hrs 50min	4hrs 15 min	4hrs 45min	4hrs 10min	5hrs 30min
75-79	4hrs 35min	5hrs 05min	4hrs 30min	5hrs 00min	4hrs 30min	6hrs 00min
80 and over	4hrs 50min	5hrs 20min	4hrs 50min	5hrs 20min	4hrs 55min	6hrs 35min

*Age is 16-34 (for Chicago's youngest category)

While some may think that this makes Boston the "easiest" of the three to get into, I would argue otherwise. I still think it is the hardest to get into domestically. (Granted, it's not nearly as difficult to get into as London -- with over 1.1 million people applying for fewer than 50,000 bibs for 2026.)

Even though all three races have a way to get in via qualifying times, the vast majority of Boston's bibs are only available through BQ times. The remaining bibs are available through charity fundraising, with a very small portion through other methods (such as tour operators and lottery from among those who have a certain number of World Marathon Major finishes and haven't previously earned a 6-Star medal).

Chicago has a sizable number of bibs available via lottery, and the remaining available through charity fundraising, tour operators, and WMM finishes-related lottery.

New York has a sizable number of bibs available via lottery, their 9+1 Program, and the remaining available through charity fundraising, tour operators, and WMM finishes-related lottery.

With only a cursory look at the charities associated with these races, it looks like New York City has at least one charity with as low a minimum fundraising amount as $3,000. Boston's may be as high as $8,500 for its lowest minimum. I wasn't able to see what Chicago's lowest minimum is in my quick search. If you are looking to get a bib via charity fundraising, your best bet is to look at those charities that you have the closest connection to where you will be able to be sincere in your desire to raise money, even if that winds up being a somewhat higher commitment than others might be.

Mixed bag, today

Today is a tale of good news, bad news.

Good news: I have dropped just over 20 pounds from my high this year. I am right where I want to be as far as the low weight on a given week, willing to float up as much as 5 pounds for my highest from here during the week. Body fat is getting closer to what I want it to be, but would still like to build up a bit more muscle mass.

Bad news: Today's long run was horrid. I wound up taking some walking breaks which, at first, was not a big deal because it looked like I would still have long running segments, so that I wouldn't be losing an excessive amount of time walking. But then those breaks had to be done at shorter intervals. And then I wound up walking my last two miles. My legs were just way too tired going into today, and despite Garmin saying that my HR was only in Zone 2, the amount of exertion felt like I was more likely in Zone 4.

What caused today's problems? Unclear, but I think it was at least in part due to my having not done the correct workouts on Friday and Saturday. Friday's workout was supposed to be 8 miles morning, 3 miles afternoon, and Saturday was supposed to be cross-training (not running). Since I bolloxed Friday with a single (and easier) run, I chose to skip the cross-training and do Friday's AM/PM workout instead. Certainly a bad choice. Was there anything else at play here? Maybe, but I'm certainly at a loss to properly figure it out.

Definitely not going to let this get to me. Learn what lessons I can from today and keep moving forward. The vast majority of this training cycle has been great, so I don't think this is a harbinger of problems.

And I get to enjoy a rest day tomorrow - no workout of any sort. If the sun is out in the afternoon, I'll wind up going to the pool and get a decent bit of Vitamin D, and then spend about 10-15 minutes in the water. No real exertion.

Solid day!

Dang, today's run was really quite good. 1-mile warm-up, 10 x 1/4mile (at 6:00/mi pace), 4 x1/2mile (at 6:12 pace), and 1-mile cool-down. (The distance (and, hence, pace) didn't record correctly on Garmin -- it never does on treadmill. It was off by a typical 12%.)

The 1/4-mile intervals usually aren't all that bad. They're over fast enough, there isn't really much opportunity to have fatigue or an overly high HR set in. The 1/2-mile intervals are usually trickier. (And certainly 1-mile intervals, when I have those at this pace.) Today, absolutely no issues of any sort.

Definitely feeling very confident that not only will I be able to hit my 3:15 goal in Erie, but even faster than that. Now on the back half of the training plan. Erie will be here faster than I expect!

Feeling good!

Week 8 in the books, and things are still going swimmingly. Today's long run was spot-on. There was an odd hiccup smack in the middle of it -- the treadmill I was on had some sort of fault and came to a relatively quick halt -- but thankfully the one right next to me was not being used. So, I had less than a 1-minute breather in the time it took to shift over, put in the couple of speeds, and got it going. Had I stayed with the original treadmill and simply rebooted it (which I know works, having done it before), it would have been as much as 3-5 minutes of downtime. I'm glad it was open, because the only other functioning treadmill of the type I can deal with in the gym was occupied (and three others are STILL broken after over 2 weeks).

And, yes, there can be huge differences between various brands/models of treadmills. There are two that we have in my gym: Technogym and Woodway. I use the Technogym ones for two reasons: the tread itself (think a continuous fabric, a very forgiving surface) and the built-in TV (which is only connected on two of the three functioning ones right now). The Woodway -- while far more prevalent in my gym -- I can't tolerate being on for even five seconds. I find them VERY painful. The only way I can describe the tread is as a tank tread -- that's exactly what it looks like to me. It is very unforgiving in nature and somehow feels FAR worse to my legs than running on the streets or sidewalks. (Strange that rubber can seem so much harder than concrete.) And, what's worse, it doesn't even have a built-in TV to help distract you.

So, while I've got tomorrow as a rest day (thanks to my long run today), hopefully when I get back to the gym on Tuesday 1) one of the mills will be available when I arrive (rather than having to kill time on the stair stepper waiting for it) and 2) the other mills that have been broken for far too long will be working again (increasing my odds of one being available when I arrive).

BQ Time Verification Confirmed

For the last few years, the Boston Marathon has provided the ability for runners to pre-verify qualifying times to assist in the registration process. I believe it's a large part of the reason why BAA has been able to reduce the registration period from two weeks down to one -- because a large percentage of people will have already had their times verified. So it's much easier for BAA to sort the times and move down the list to get near the ultimate cutoff time, pending the late verification of those times that weren't submitted in advance.

While I have my BQ-2:36 already pre-verified (thanks to my result from Erie 2024 being eligible for use -- the last double-dip weekend allowed), my plan is to NOT use it. Rather, my current training plan (already in week 8 - wow!) is for Erie 2025, running with the 3:15 pacer, and looking to break away during the last 1-2 miles, conditions permitting, to have better than a BQ-5 to actually use.

8 weeks in to the plan, and everything is working out just fine so far. Save for one run, I'm hitting all of my workout goals. And, as previously noted, my weight is slightly lower. And I've increased a little bit of muscle mass along the way, even.

Mileage totals so far

So far this year, the mileage has been decent, I think. Especially considering I typically take a few days off from running after each marathon. While I'm still putting on mileage on my feet, per se, it's on the elliptical - and I don't include those miles in my running totals.

January: 218 (including 1 marathon)

February: 188 (including 1 marathon)

March: 196 (including 1 marathon)

April: 185 (including 1 marathon)

May: 197 (including 1 marathon)

June: 209 (no marathons)

YTD: 1,193 miles

I'm now 6 weeks into my current training cycle, with my next marathon scheduled for early September. The mileage should keep on going up from here until I hit about 240 or so in a given month before tapering.

Looking back at last year's total, 2329 miles, I'm certainly on pace to surpass that, though my mileage in October will definitely drop, given I have two (and possibly three) marathons I'll be running that month. Those "recovery" days will certainly eat into the ultimate total.