Going For A BQ

No, its not what you think, nothing to do with cooking meat over hot coals, and no, its not about me doing it either. A BQ is a Boston Marathon Qualifier. The Boston Marathon has certain qualifying standards based on sex and age before the organizers allow you to participate in the prestigious and storied event (there are other ways that you can participate but it involves raising money for charity). It means that you have had to previously run at least a certain finishing time in a marathon within roughly a year and a half before the year of the Boston Marathon that you want to participate in. For example for men aged 18 to 34, the qualifying time is 3 hours and 10 minutes. For women aged 45 to 49, its 4 hours.
My neighbor, friend, and erstwhile training partner, who has gotten faster while I have gotten slower, BQ'd in last year's Long Beach Marathon by running it in 3:49:41. So on April 20, 2009, she toed the line in Boston and finished the race in a remarkable time of 3:50:32. Kudos to her for the achievement (I immediately sent her a text message when she finished because I was tracking the race online).
Another friend is trying to BQ at a younger age group so he ran a marathon on May 3, 2009 in an attempt to do so. The week prior, he told me about his plans and what pace per mile he needed to run to achieve his BQ goal. I asked him what his most recent 10 kilometer race finishing time was. From prior experience and readings in my almost 30 years of running, I was able to mentally calculate what my friends' potential finishing time was going to be based on his 10K time if he ran well on marathon day. He needed to finish the marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes to BQ, but my calculations brought his potential more into the 3:20 range. I didn't have the heart to tell him that because I wanted him to keep his positive mood for the race. Besides, who knows? He might be able to outdo his potential with the proper circumstances on race day. It has happened to others before, so I just kept my fingers crossed for him. Alas, it was not to be. He finished way short of his goal and even short of the calculated potential. In his own words he said he “crashed and burned”. I feel bad for him. So his quest for a BQ continues and I'm sure he is going to keep on trying. After all he is still a young man and has lots of opportunities to achive his goal. When I was running my best at my prime, I would have never BQ'd because I never even had the calculated potential to do so. If my friend continues to train well, he does.