Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is the pinnacle of running achievements. If it’s been your dream to make the famous trek from Hopkinton to Copley Square, then we have the experience and the knowledge to get you there. You’ll be hard pressed to find another site who has our combination of first-hand experience and scientific understanding of the marathon distance and more experience coaching marathoners to qualify for Boston.

In this compressive article, we’ll show you the most recent qualifying times, the best races to qualify at, and of course,  provide you helpful training articles to help you dominate your next race and sail under your qualifying time.

Boston Marathon Qualifying Times

Making the process of Boston Qualifying even more complicated, you also have to take into account that Boston has implemented a rolling registration process in an effort to alleviate congestion on the race website on the day of signup. While the details of the exact days of registration will change each year, here is how the rolling registration process works:

• Day 1 – Qualifiers who have met their age and gender qualifying standard (3 hours, 10 minutes for men aged 18-34 and 3 hours, 40 minutes for women 18-34) by a margin of 20 minutes or faster may apply for the marathon.

• Day 3  – Qualifiers who have met the standard set for their age/gender by a margin of 10 minutes or faster may apply.

• Day 5  – Qualifiers who have met their age/gender qualifying time by a margin of 5 minutes or faster may apply.

• Day 8 – Open to all qualifiers to register.

• Day 12  – Registration closes for qualified applicants. Registered qualifiers will be notified of their acceptance by the end of September.

The following is the most recent list of the qualifying times you need to hit to qualify for Boston.

Boston Marathon Qualifying Races

Following is a list of marathons most frequently used to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Remember, the registration for 2013 closes in September, so you’ll need to run you race before September 2013 to qualify for the race in 2014 (Registration for the 2013 Boston Marathon has passed). This is not an all-inclusive list. All qualifying marathons must be certified.

Training to Qualify for the Boston Marathon

Now that you know the times you need to hit to qualify and you’ve selected the perfect race, it’s time for the training to begin. Here is a 11-part course on our most comprehensive and innovative marathon workouts and training philosophy to help you crush your PR.

1. If you have more than 16 weeks before your marathon, here’s why you may want to consider a speed development segment
2. The scientifically-proven optimal long run pace when marathon training
3. Why you need to run some of your long runs in a glycogen depleted state to teach your body how to burn fat as a fuel source
4. How to practice your marathon fueling in training so it’s perfect on race day
5. The science of bonking, hitting the wall, glycogen depletion and how to avoid it
6. What is lactate clearance and how can it help you run a faster marathon
7. Fast finish long runs
8. Surges during your long runs and how they can make you a monster for the last 10k of a marathon
9. How hills impact your training and race times
10. Example training schedule from 2:16 marathoner Nate Jenkins and the lessons you can learn
11. 3 Common Marathon Tapering Mistakes in the Last Three Weeks