How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon

Steady, consistent training over a long period of time is the secret

Going into my first marathon, I had no idea what to expect. All I wanted to do was qualify for the Boston Marathon, which, as a 21-year-old, had the hardest qualifying time: running under three hours. I had a rule that I wasn’t going to focus on time. I was going to focus on the process.

On November 3, 2018, I ran a 2:40:06 marathon in Savannah, placing third in my very first marathon and qualifying for the Boston Marathon by almost 20 minutes.

That meant that for 26.2 miles, I maintained a 6:06 minute per mile pace. I would be in the second wave of runners who could enter into the 2020 Boston Marathon, and I would have been in the first (those under 2:40:00) had I not gone the wrong way for 15 seconds in the race.

The Boston Marathon is the crown jewel of marathons for runners in America. Besides New York, no other marathon comes close. Boston’s mythical status as the prototypical American marathon was cemented by the 2013 terrorist bombings in Boston, which we now memorialize as “Patriots’ Day” on April 15.

A lot of people ask me how I attained not only the Boston Marathon standard but did it by over 20 minutes. They, too, want to qualify for the Boston Marathon for the experience, and needless to say, success for me didn’t come overnight. You can’t just wake up, decide to run a marathon, and then qualify for the Boston Marathon (well, maybe a couple of people can). Running needs to be incorporated as a consistent part of your lifestyle.

Of course, I lucked out on a lot of things — I didn’t get injured. College left me with a lot of time that the real world does not. I had been a runner for nine years already, and not everyone has that running history. I had friends who I was able to train with and push me, a luxury I don’t have as much now due to COVID-19.

I haven’t had as much luck since, and with the 2020 Boston Marathon being canceled and turning virtual because of Covid-19, I’ll have to qualify again. Anyways, to everyone who asks me for running advice, here is a comprehensive guide based on my own success on how to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Look Up the Qualifying Time

Boston Marathon qualifying standards are separated by gender and age. Go to the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) website to see yours — as a 23-year old man, I fall into the 18–34 age group, which is the fastest qualifying standard of 3 hours, 0 minutes. For 18–34-year-old women, the qualifying standard is 3 hours and 30 minutes. Your qualifying time must come from “USATF, AIMS, or foreign equivalent certified courses”—see the information below qualifying times on the BAA website for more details on finding qualifying races.

Meeting the qualifying standard for your category isn't enough, however. This year, the Boston Marathon only accepted qualifiers who were a minute and 39 seconds (1:39) faster than their qualifying standard. The race can only take so many qualified applicants for field size limitations, so it’s not enough to just aim to run your qualifying standard.

According to the B.A.A.,

“3,161 applicants were unable to be accepted due to the large number of eligible qualifiers who submitted an application for entry.”

That means that you can get your qualifying time and still not qualify — which means that to be safe, you need to run faster than your qualifying time. This year, 2020, was actually the slowest cut-off time in Boston Marathon history — the year before in 2019, the cut-off time was 4 minutes and 52 seconds, meaning that an 18–34-year-old man would have to run 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 8 seconds in a marathon to qualify.

Since the qualifying time is not a guarantee because of the cut-off time, don’t aim to run the qualifying time. Aim to run faster than your qualifying time. If your qualifying time is 3:30 hour marathon, aim to run 3:20. If your qualifying time is 3 hours, aim to run 2:50.

Training for a Boston Marathon qualifier requires a lot of time, effort—and not sharp spikes in effort, but long-term, consistent effort.

For the 2020 Boston Marathon, you had to have run your qualifying time between September 15, 2018, to September 9, 2019. Remember: the window is between September to September, and you must plan to do a race to qualify for it the next year. If this were any normal year, if I were to run a marathon in August 2020, that would be for the 2021 qualifying window. However, if I ran a marathon in October, it would be for the 2022 qualifying window.

Do a Diagnostic Race

When studying for big tests for college and graduate schools, people often do diagnostic assessments when they start to study. Running is the same way. You can’t make a training plan without knowing where you are.

It’s not going to be a perfect assessment, but in normal times, signing up for a local road race like a 5k or a 10k would be a prognosticator of what kind of shape you’re currently in.

If you’re just starting running, don’t fret—but having expectations as high as the Boston Marathon means you need to plan for a long time. I needed six months to train for the Savannah Marathon, but that was just me. Everyone needs to make their individual training plan based on where they’re at.

Runners often get down on themselves if their first race in a long time didn’t go well — and it’s a natural response, but seeing that race as a diagnostic rather than a serious race will help you put things into perspective.

For example, since there are no live races going on any time soon due to Covid-19, and since my training has been lagging, I just ran my two races in the last two weeks. I ran a 4:56 mile and an 11:01 two-mile. These times just show I have a lot of work to do to get back down to 2:40 marathon shape, and that I have a lot of work to do over the next year to come up with a training plan and train seriously.

Begin Your Training Slowly and Steadily

Do not try to run too much right off the bat.

The biggest mistake I see so many new runners make is that they try to run an insane number of miles to make a drastic lifestyle change and start running, going on runs that are hours long and 15 miles.

That isn’t how you get better. That’s how you get injured.

In addition, some of my friends, the first time they start running, tell me about knee pain. There are usually two reasons for it, which include simply being rusty or maybe needing new running shoes.

However, when they reach out to me, I usually tell them to run again the next day. I get knee pain and just feel awful in general if I don’t run for two weeks, and then come back. It’s natural. Your body isn’t used to it. The second run gets easier, and then the third run becomes even easier.

A marathon is a very long race, and that means that not every run is going to be fast. In fact, some of your runs are going to be pretty darn slow — they’re called “easy runs” for a reason. My college coach told me that you have two hard efforts a week. Use them wisely. I was using way too many of my hard efforts and then leaving myself drained and burned out by the time the race came, and ironically, by going easier on my runs, I started to run faster.

Commit and Motivate Yourself

Running and training for any marathon is a huge commitment. Many believe that all you need to run is a pair of running shoes. That’s true — but running shoes are not cheap, and entering races is not cheap, either.

If you’ve ever run before, you would know that running can be really hard, painful, and tiring. Of course, it gets less difficult, painful, and tiring the more you run and the better shape you get in, but commitment can be extremely difficult.

I get it — we have kids, jobs, a million other commitments, and not enough time in the day. But running isn’t just one of those commitments — it’s a huge physical, mental, and financial commitment. Sure, runners don’t run for four hours every day, which is a plus compared to other sports, but running is a huge energy expenditure that other sports are not. I have many days when I ran in the morning and wouldn’t have energy for other things later in the day — in college, I would often nod off in my classes if we had an early morning workout.

That’s why rest and recovery are extremely important. You’re going to need sleep, and a lot of it, to improve as a runner. You will need a lot of time.

Since I work a taxing full-time job as a teacher, I also find it pretty hard to motivate myself a lot of the times, much more so than I did in college. If you are also struggling with motivation, I suggest signing up for local races, like 5ks and 10ks, to keep yourself accountable. They don’t need to be all-out efforts as much as they are workouts to gauge your progress.

Apps and gadgets

You can keep it simple here, but some people find that a few things help.

Strava, as a running app, would be the best way to connect with other runners and compare running times and splits — I don’t use it, but most of my friends do.

A GPS watch can also be really helpful. Again, I don’t use one as part of my running philosophy, but I know a lot of people who do.

About shoes

You’ll likely run through several pairs of running shoes, and getting the right shoes is not cheap.

If you don’t know what good running shoes are, I probably don’t either, since I haven’t seen your feet or how you run — that’s why you should go to a local running store and have them fit your feet and see how you run. They will be able to assess things like whether you’re an overpronator or an underpronator and whether you need a stable or a neutral shoe.

As a general rule of thumb, you need to replace your running shoes every 300–500 miles. I usually have to get new running shoes every two to three months.

I get running shoes for cheap through Running Warehouse, an online retailer, but I know which shoes I need that work for me. Running shoes can run around $100 on average unless you’re getting an insane discount.

Other expenses

Don’t sign up for too many races, but having some on deck will help you stay motivated. COVID-19 has certainly put a dagger in running races but check with running clubs for virtual races and events. I have been participating in my running club’s summer race series to help keep up with running over the summer.

Most marathons I’ve entered cost over $100 to register. The Boston Marathon itself costs $205 for my entry.

Not everyone has the same privilege, so assess all the time, energy, and financial demands of training for a marathon before embarking on trying for the lofty goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

Build Up Your Training Very Gradually

You’ve run your first week of training. You’re optimistic and excited to ramp up your training. You ran 5 miles, 10 miles, or 20 miles. That’s great.

But curb your excitement — you’re training for a marathon, not a 100-meter sprint. That means that you should treat your body carefully because there’s always going to be a big injury risk that comes with running that much, and one huge way that runners, including myself and my old cross country teammates, have gotten injured, is building up training too quickly.

Injuries happen for a lot of factors outside runners’ control, like rolling your ankle in a very bad way in a trail.

If your first week of training was 10 miles, then you shouldn’t jump to 30 miles next week. Everyone has a different philosophy on how runners should build their mileage in their training plan, but most agree that you should not build by more than 10 miles a week. The peak of my training was four consecutive weeks running 80–85 miles a week. It took me about seven weeks of training, building from 25 miles to 35 miles to 45 miles… you get the point.

Take “down weeks,” which are weeks where you run less and give yourself time to recover. After my first 80-mile week, I took a 60-mile down week, for example.

It’s easy to get excited, but it’s also get carried away. You’re going to be training for a very long time. Don’t do too much right away. The gradual, consistent build is the model for how to run your best marathon rather than a sudden, abrupt build in training and mileage.

Pay very careful attention to how you feel

So many people think that being a good runner means being a bulldozer who can push through insurmountable pain. And while we all do that sometimes on races, there is no reason why you should be giving 100%, full-throttle effort to every run.

“Run by feel” was a philosophy of my college cross country coach because runners have a bad tendency to try to force things — forcing a time or a pace in a race, or forcing certain splits in training. If you don’t feel good, that’s your body telling you to slow down, that the pace is too much for you to handle.

If you keep trying to force a certain pace or run mileage that your body isn’t ready for, the physical toll you’re putting on yourself will catch up to you. You can’t fake fitness. You’re either fit enough to run that pace for 26.2 miles or not.

Again, with most training plans, you will have two hard efforts every week. Even during those hard efforts, you should not be giving 100% unless it’s at the end of a race. In workouts, I often used to give too much, not saving that energy for my races. It’s not that you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable in your training — you should, but only slightly. You should not be giving everything you have in a workout.

The few runs before the actual date of your race are weeks to go lighter on training.

In races, too, runners make a mistake of going out way too fast and then paying for it later. In no race is it more excruciating to suffer a long, slow death while lactic acid builds up in your legs than the marathon. I experienced it when I didn’t train well enough in the 2019 Baltimore Marathon and then died for 13 straight miles, barely able to put one foot in front of another and watching about 50 other people pass me.

In addition to pacing yourself, make sure you’re comfortable within reason. Be a little uncomfortable, but only a little — and remember that you have one big surge to use during the race. Use it at the end. Do not respond every time someone passes you — beat them at the finish, not at mile 2.

The only time you should be sprinting in the marathon is at the very end. I repeat — the only time you should be sprinting in the marathon is at the end. At all other times, you should be running steady, consistent, and comfortable.

The Secret to Qualifying for the Boston Marathon

Everyone wants a secret and quick fix to get fast, fit, and in their Boston Marathon qualifier shape. The biggest secret is that there is no quick fix. It takes a lot of hard work over a long period of time.

But the one thing I will say is that it’s better to be consistent than good. Nine months of consistent training will get you in good shape, and although you might not be in peak marathon shape, you will be in a much better place than you were before.

It takes a lot of time, effort, and commitment. If there were a sexy and glamorous “hack” that could magically make you good at running, I would give it to you — especially since I spent 10 years of my life searching for it.

All I know is that you have to want it. Always remind yourself of “why” you’re running the Boston Marathon — for me, the move up to the marathon was only natural for me, since I excel at long-distance events. The marathon training became my escape from a chaotic personal life and a source of personal validation.

You’re going to have long, very lonely runs. You’re going to have some workouts that are really tough. I once did 15 miles on the track at marathon pace as my crown jewel workout, three weeks before my marathon — which meant that I ran 60 laps around the track at 6-minute-pace. I considered giving up several times, only to have to constantly remind myself why I was doing that workout. I also did very lonely 21-mile runs. It’s hard to find someone else who’s willing to run 21 miles with you, even in non-COVID times.

If you want to train for the Boston Marathon, you have to really want it to qualify. It’s not some lofty, inaccessible thing, but just a goal that requires a significant, tactical commitment. Assess where you are in your life and whether you can give that commitment right now — it will start to become a significant part of your life as you set forward on the journey.

Like anything, make sure it’s one that you love.