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Men and Women Not Equally Qualified, But Don’t Blame BostonPublished by
The differences between the respective times men and
women must reach in order to enter various distance events, especially
marathons, is one of those issues that never strays far from the
collective running consciousness. An October 15 article in the Wall Street Journal kicked this topic back into the limelight by focusing on the difference
in the men’s and women’s qualifying standards for the Boston Marathon,
the only citizen’s race of note that includes time-based restrictions on
entry (dozens of loopholes exist, but that’s fodder for another
discussion). At present, the Q-time for a man under 35 is 3 :10 and that
for women in the same age group is 3:40. Then, three days after the WSJ article was published, the Boston Marathon opened its doors to online
registration for the 2011 race six months away. Within eight hours, the
field had filled to its capacity of just over 25,000 entrants and registration was closed. While not a
gender issue, this immediately intensified scrutiny of the Boston
qualifying times, given that these will likely have to be toughened in
order to keep what many see as an injustice from happening in the
future. Read the full article at: www.runningtimes.com
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