After years of striving to get a “BQ” or Boston Qualifying standard, we can now add “JFKQ” to our lexicon. The JFK 50 Mile race has added qualifying standards for the first time ever for its massively popular race just north of Washington, D.C. Let me break down the top tier of what they are calling “Top-Qualifying Citizen Athletes.”
For males ages 13-39 you must have either run a sub-3:00:00 marathon, a sub-4:00:00 50K, a sub-7:15:00 50 miler or a sub-9:00:00 100k. Tough stuff!
For females ages 13-39 the times are a sub-3:30:00 marathon, a sub-4:30:00 50K, a sub-8:00:00 50-miler or a sub-10:00:00 100K. Nothing to sneeze at either.
Personally I feel they are a fantastic idea. But they are indeed strict. In 2009, a year where records fell and many felt it was a fast course, only 31 total runners out of the 1027 finishers broke 7:15 at JFK in 2009. Sure the 7:15 standard is the fastest standard they have and a matrix of stats would allow me to see how each age group fared with regard to breaking the standard for that age group (they can all be found here) but I think that we can probably agree these are some tough goals to meet. In fact, I think they get tougher as the distance increases.
With marathons, there are undoubtedly different marathons which are faster than others. But the further you go up the ladder in distance the greater the discrepancy in time goes. By that I mean there are 50 milers out there that take significantly longer to complete than other 50 milers, even when the same people are running them. This most assuredly is going to open up these qualifying standards to much debate which is definitely not a bad thing.
One thing that does bother me, however, is the difference between the standards between men and women. Not unlike the Boston Qualifying standards, I think they are a tad too easy for females, almost to the point where it is a little insulting to women. While there are obvious distances in the genders (and some would debate women may be better than men when it comes to ultradistances) it would be nice to see qualifying standards a little closer.
Having said that, as I mentioned, I am a big fan of these standards. I have often written that not everything in this world (especially the running one) MUST be experienced by everyone.
There are certain races which should have a gold standard of automatic qualification and the JFK 50-mile race is one of them. Of course, this is a shrewd marketing and business plan by the JFK 50 people. The minute you put a cap on your race and make such announcements about exclusion, the knee-jerk reaction is to go and run that race. Not that the JFK 50 had a problem filling up before, but it has assured itself of filling fully and rapidly every year now. If you doubt me, look at the history of the Boston Marathon which became mostly the race it is today because of its desire to keep the running “riff-raff” out by implementing standards. It immediately doubled in size by doing so!
To save itself from complete criticism, JFK 50 will also be holding a lottery for those not fleet of foot to enter. Again, this is not a bad idea in my humble opinion. It allows a few who cannot meet the standards to see what the course is like and hopefully give their all to qualifying the next year. In fact, I would implement a rule that if you make it into the race on the lottery you cannot do so again until you have qualified for the race timewise. Nothing wrong with striving to succeed.
It is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. In either case, if you haven’t run this race, I highly suggest signing up. They out on a very good show race there and I indeed need to get back there to improve on my 2005 running (my first 50-miler ever and last tune-up race before my 52 Marathons in 52 weekends.)