Yesterday at 10:07 AM Eastern Standard Time (or 4:07 PM here in Barcelona), I registered for Boston.
It was a thrilling moment for me, even though it was just filling out an online form… something I do on a fairly regular basis if I’m being honest. I buy way too many t-shirts… which is odd given that as I approach a milestone figure in lifetime marathons run, I’ve got a shipload (a literal ship load!) of running shirts from various events.
But I digress. The point is that there was a massive rush at clicking on the drop down menus to input my Boston Qualifying (BQ) time from Run for the Red Poconos Marathon. I selected “03” for the hours, “08” for the minutes, and “11” for the seconds.
I was able to search for the race and highlight it… which gave me near instant verification on the Boston Athletic Association’s website. A swell of pride and of anticipation at seeing the red text on the site:
And now I wait. According to the BAA website:
Verification
We at the B.A.A. ask for your patience, as it may take time to verify certain results based on the data and entries submitted. For those whose qualifying data matches their submission data in all categories, verification is traditionally very quick. However, for data that may be slightly different – for example, if an athlete has changed addresses, or uses a nickname – it may take some time to verify. If you do not receive immediate verification, do not worry; your Reference ID number holds your place until your entry submission and qualifying time is completely verified. In some cases, it may take up to 2-3 weeks for full verification.
So I guess in two to three weeks I’ll know whether I’m all in… or if I need to run ever faster to qualify AND get in.
No matter what happens, I’ll always have that BQ. And that’s a pretty big ego boost for me.