Through a unique combination of tradition, history, and circumstances, the Boston Marathon stands alone among popular worldwide marathons in requiring a qualifying time in order for runners to participate in the race. While the BAA has mitigated this stringent requirement somewhat in recent years by allowing a certain number of charity fund-raisers and local club runners to gain entry without qualifying, by and large runners must complete another marathon, and run it relatively fast, just to get into the race. This requirement goes against everything that modern marathon running represents in the late 1990s. Unlike in the early 1970s when the Boston qualifying standards were put into place, big city marathon running is no longer simply a hobby for race organizers-it is big business. Runners and their traveling companions bring with them an infusion of money for cities in which races are held.
More runners means more money.
The New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Honolulu, London, Berlin, and Paris marathons, among others, pack 'em in by the tens of thousands. Restricting the race to faster athletes would be like throwing money out the window for these marathons, which would never dream of requiring runners to meet a qualifying time. Thus, marathon running has reinvented itself as a moving parade of sorts, with no requirement for even a base level of fitness in order to participate. This trend has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people into the sport who years ago would never have dreamed of running a marathon. A time that would have left a runner desperately alone near the tail end of the race 20 years ago now places one solidly in the middle of the pack.