I received an email tonight from the Boston Marathon race director, who indicated that he is still waiting to hear from the USATF-New England race referee about our request to have the Indoor Marathon considered a Boston Marathon qualifier. He said right now their policies state that times from indoor marathons are not allowed. Stay tuned.....
Incidentally, last year's Indoor Marathon winner, Bryan Schneider, ran a 2:37 at our race and then did a 2:36 on the rugged Boston course a few months later. Conclusion: you don't get much of a time advantage, if any, running indoors. Even though the weather conditions aren't perfect outdoors like they are at the Pettit Center, there is some benefit to elevation changes and running in straight lines rather than turning 14 times every mile. I am not suggesting that running at the Pettit Center is as difficult as Boston (I have run at both places and there is no comparison - Boston is by far the more difficult course); but it's not as easy some think.
I would be interested to see a comparison of what finishers of last year's Indoor Marathon did in subsequent marathons. All it would take is some research on MarathonGuide.com. Any takers?
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I did a quick survey of the top 35 finishers in last year's Indoor Marathon and found that they ran a combined 19 better times than their Indoor Marathon time in other marathons in 2009, and a combined 9 times worse. The only two who ran the Boston Marathon ran it faster than the Indoor Marathon. Draw your own conclusions.
I am all for indoor marathons, but in no way should they ever be Boston Qualifiers.
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