Boston Marathon completes qualifying field
It was kind of like a high school senior waiting for that fat envelope to come in the mail with an acceptance letter to their top college choice.
On Wednesday 22,679 Boston Marathon applicants received an email that they were ‘in.’ 2,976 runners were rejected. Runners needed to post a finish time 1 minute and 38 seconds faster than their age and gender to qualify.
The recent qualifiers will joining the group of 4,615 runners unable to finish the 2013 Boston Marathon. Also qualifying are the 402 runners who have an active streak of crossing the finish line on Boylston Street 10 or more times.
This brings the total of qualifying runners for the 2014 Boston Marathon to 27,696. This number represent 77% of the field. Still to come are 8,300 spots that will be filled by charity runners and special invitations.
The total field for next year’s race of official qualifiers is 36,000.
This does not include the “bandits” who will run without numbers- which could be record breaking.
