The Boston Athletic Association opened their tiered registration process this morning at 10:00 a.m. for the 2012 Boston marathon, reports
WBUR.
With the new system in place, only those runners with qualifying times over 20 minutes faster than the average for their age and gender were allowed to register.
Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. registration will open up to those who have a qualifying time that’s 10 minutes better than the average for their race bracket.
On Friday, those with a 5 minute above-average time will be eligible to register. Those with a qualifying time will be able to register on Monday, Sept. 19, space provided.
The race normally draws a crowd of around 25,000 runners.
“If we could accept 50,000 or 100,000 people and it could run as smooth as it does with 25,000 or 26,000 or 27,000, we would do it. Why would we want to turn anyone away?” Dave McGillivray, race director, said.
“More and more people are running and more are qualifying, then we have to adjust accordingly to adhere to our goal and our mission, and that is the pursuit of athletic excellence,” McGillivray said.
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