Boston Comes to Closure

BAA executive director Guy Morse discusses the marathon's early end of registration

On Nov. 13, the Boston Athletic Association announced that registration for the 2010 Boston Marathon had closed. It is only the second time in the marathon's history that registration has closed early (the first was last January), which BAA executive director Guy Morse believes is both the result of an increasing trend in marathon participation nationwide and an effort by the organization to alert potential runners that the race could fill up sooner than expected. "We encouraged people to register early," Morse says. "And they did." 

Running Times: What are the underlying demographic reasons for increased participation?

Guy Morse: We encouraged them to register early, because there does seem to be renewed interest in the marathon. Both across the board―but I can only speak to Boston, and there seems to be more interest in the Boston Marathon than ever. And there are more qualifiers than ever. That's driving the need to register early, and we have a finite number of spaces. We're actually taking more qualifiers than ever before this year. 

Have you given any thought to lowering the qualifying standard?

GM: We've looked at two ways, not that we're near making a decision, but we have looked at either trying to allow more runners to enter, which means greater capacity, although we're more interested in quality runners, versus quantity. That remains important to us―the quality of the run, not just the number of people running. So that's one way to go―to allow more participation. And another way, of course, is too look at the qualifying times and adjust them that way. We have looked at them, but we're in no position at this point to make any changes. But we have looked at it, and that is one option for the future.