There are two kinds of runners: Those who want to run the Boston Marathon and those who have. If you’re relatively new to running and have never considered running Boston, well, give it time.

America’s oldest and most prestigious marathon is the epitome of races, the “Super Bowl” for runners. Unlike most marathons, where anyone can sign up, the Boston Marathon expects much more: a qualifying time to enter.

Even with a qualifying time, getting into the Boston Marathon proved harder this year. With the increase in people running marathons, there are more people qualifying for Boston than there is availability in the race, even with some 20,000 participants. So, starting with the 2012 registration, the faster qualifying times got preference in a “rolling registration.” In 2013, the qualifying times get even more rigorous - they will drop by 5 minutes.

Mike Dayton, 50, of Chaska, Minnesota, needed to run under 3:35 to qualify for this year’s race. “I first qualified at Grandma’s Marathon 2011, my first-ever marathon, with a time of 3:33:47, which was a BQ with a 1:13 cushion. However, the field filled at 3:33:46, so I was one second out.”

Ouch. (BQ, by the way, means “Boston Qualifier.”)

With a 2012 qualifying time of 3:45, Sara Huegerich, 36, of Ankeny, Iowa, was luckier. Her 3:41:40 marathon time last summer did get her a spot in this year’s race, which will be her fourth marathon and her first Boston. “I submitted my time because I wasn’t sure if I would meet the qualifying time again with the new standards for 2013,” Huegerich said. “When I did receive the confirmation of acceptance, I felt very excited, honored, and blessed.”

If Huegerich wants to run Boston again in 2013, she will need to run a marathon this year under 3:40. “If I want to qualify for Boston during Boston, I will have to run at least two minutes faster on this course that is described as brutal.”

Dayton has already qualified for the 2013 Boston Marathon after running a 3:23:40 at the 2011 Twin Cities Marathon. Now, with more than six minutes of cushion for his new qualifying time of 3:30, he’s confident he’ll run Boston next year. (Note: There is a window in which qualifying times apply, and the 2013 window began at the end of 2011.)

Cindi Matt, 40, of Minnistrista, Minnesota, is another runner who ran a Boston qualifying time, but still wasn’t fast enough to get into the race. With eight marathons under her belt, she says it’s been her goal to run Boston since she started running marathons in 2008. Even though she has yet to make it into the race, she is glad the qualifying standards are there. (I’m acquaintances with both Cindi and Mike.)

“When they make it even harder to get in, it makes me want to work that much harder to not just BQ, but to BQ by enough that I will actually toe the line,” Matt said, who is training to qualify at a marathon later this month. “I think I was initially upset when the new standards came out,” Matt admits. “But I have worked so much harder and now I believe I have a legitimate shot… But I suppose everyone else in the country is working just as hard too, so who knows how registration will go next year!”

Have you run Boston? Do you want to? What do you think about new standards to qualify?

It’s difficult to imagine the marathon as anything less than the ultimate endurance race. However, as runners flirt with the elusive 2-hour time barrier, one has to wonder whether it’s time to reclassify the event as a sprint. Case in point: Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai established a best-ever time of 2:03:02 at the 2011 Boston Marathon.

Remarkably, Mutai shattered the previous marathon best time by nearly a minute on a course that’s considered one of the toughest in the marathon world. Yet, it won’t go down as a world record because Boston’s net downhill course and 20-plus mile-an-hour winds the day of the race fall outside IAAF standards.

Yet it raises the question: Is a sub-2 hour marathon possible?

Although today’s athletes use equipment that’s far superior to what their predecessors had available, a number of factors go into running a perfect race, including talent, training, weather conditions, and a runner’s mindset.

Marathon times have continued to drop for the last century. At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, American John Hayes ran the first modern race in 2:55:18. In 1925, American Albert Michelson posted broke through the two-and-a-half hour barrier with a time of 2:29:01. And in 2008, Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie set the current world record of 2:03:59.

But past performance isn’t an indicator of future gains. Carl Foster, Ph.D., director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse and editor of the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance believes that a 2 hour marathon is “possible but not probable…the rate of improvement is very slow right now. It will take a perfect day, really cool weather and a perfect race,” he says. Nevertheless, “the availability of prize money for winning big races and records will slowly pull athletes to run faster.”

A 2010 article in the Journal of Applied Physiology, “The Two-Hour Marathon: Who and When?” suggested that the barrier could fall somewhere between 15 and 25 years from now. Ross Tucker, Ph.D., a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Department, believes that a 2-hour marathon “will only be possible when the 10,000 meter times and half-marathon times improve by at least 30 seconds and 90 seconds respectively.”  That could take many more years, he says.

To be sure, it’s a fascinating and lively discussion that’s destined to hit full stride every time a major marathon takes place. In the end, perhaps only one thing is certain: It’s a heck of a lot of fun watching today’s elite marathoners chase down the record books. 

— Sam Greengard, Runner’s World Reporter