The Boston Marathon Debate

   As all serious runners know, the Boston Marathon is the race of all races.  Every marathoner wants to get a qualifying time that will allow them to compete in Boston, the race known for being full of elite runners!  The qualifying times are challenging and many runners will never even get a glimpse of a time that's even remotely close enough.  There is a HUGE debate going on about changing the qualifying times required of women.  As it currently stands, a woman can run 30 minutes slower than a male her same age.  In some ways it is very comical to me, in that I need a 3:40 marathon as a 23 yr old Female and my Dad needs a qualifying time of 3:35 as a 54 yr old male!  He has to run faster than me!!! Logically this seems kind of crazy!  True, men are naturally more athletically built than women but the debate comes in wondering if there really is about a 30 minute gap between men and women of the same age category.  Results are showing that more and more the difference is closer to 20 minutes rather than the 30 minutes.

    Since I am trying to train for Boston this difference can have a HUGE affect on my pace.  As of now, my goal is to train faster than right at the Boston qualifying time so that no matter what I can qualify!  Personally I think, go ahead and change the qualifying times.  Somehow they really think that this will deter the number of people that qualify for the marathon.  But my thinking is, if someone really wants to qualify, they will work their butts off so that no matter what they will qualify. 

But that's just my 2 cents... Thoughts?