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.