The History of the New York City Marathon Qualifying Times

Feature image by Martineric from Lille, France., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Like Boston, London, and Chicago, the New York City Marathon offers a method of guaranteed entry for faster runners. While the other three races have recently tightened their standards, NYRR has not followed suit.

At least, not yet.

I’ve been working on an analysis of runners at NYRR races eligible for time qualification – the Fred Lebow Half Marathon, NYC Half Marathon, Brooklyn Half Marathon, Staten Island Half Marathon, and NYC Marathon – and I had trouble finding information on their history. I’m familiar with the methodological changes of the past few years, but I wasn’t sure about their origins or any older changes.

When I analyzed the recent changes in the Chicago Marathon qualifying times, I found it similarly difficult to find credible information about their history. So I did some old fashioned historical research and documented when those times were instituted and when they changed.

And so, in service of my other analysis and anyone else who is curious, here’s what I could find on the history of the qualifying times used by New York Road Runners for guaranteed entry into the New York City Marathon.

When There Were No Qualifying Times

Way back when, in the 1990’s, there were no qualifying times. At least not in the modern sense.

The oldest archive I could find of a NYC Marathon website was from 1998.

That year, approximately 30,000 people were set to be accepted, broken out in the following categories:

• 7,500 from the Marathon Line-Up*
• 2,500 other applications from the tri-state area*
• 7,000 from out of the tri-state area
• 3,000 will be selected in a lottery held in mid-July
• 10,000 international runners (on a quota system by country)

At the time, you could either line up at Central Park to get an application or you could write in and request one. After you paid your $7.00 fee, you’d receive an actual application that you could submit.

Here’s the only mention of qualifying times, from the FAQ:

Do I need a qualifying time?

No. While we DO accept a limited number of applicants with very fast marathon times, most of our entrants are average runners.

It’s unclear what those “very fast” marathon times are. However, the following year the website had similar language and it also included these specific times:

So these initial qualifying times were more of a sub-elite category than a general guaranteed entry category. For context, the Boston qualifying times at that time were 3:10 for men and 3:40 for women.

Introduction of the Original NYRR Qualifying Times

Starting in 2001, NYRR instituted a relatively less restrictive set of qualifying times. But they were still limited to some of the fastest amateur runners.

In 2001, the qualifying times were loosened to 2:45 / 3:15 for men and women under 40, and 3:00 / 3:30 for masters men and women.

That year, they also introduced a half marathon qualification option:

In 2002, those qualifying times remained the same. However, additional categories were added for “veterans” aged 50-59 and 60+:

And again, these are significantly more restrictive than the Boston Marathon qualifying times of the same time period (3:30-3:35 for men 50-59 / 4:00-4:05 for women 50-59).

Evolution of the NYRR Qualifying Times

These qualifying times would change slightly over the next few years.

In 2005, the qualifying times were loosened slightly.

The men’s marathon times were all bumped by five minutes. The women’s marathon times were bumped by three minutes. This reduced the separation between men’s and women’s qualifying times from 30 minutes to 28 minutes.

The men’s and women’s half marathon times were also increased by several minutes. The exact changes varied slightly.

The following year, the qualifying times were bumped up one more time. For runner’s under 50, the marathon times bumped up five minutes. For older runners, they bumped up ten minutes.

The half marathon times increased as well. The women’s 60+ half marathon time is the only one set at a partial minute. It increased to 2:00:30.

By 2009, a new category had been added: 70+.

The other qualifying times remained the same, but runner’s 70+ could qualify with the following times:

• Men Marathon: 4:00
• Men Half Marathon: 1:55
• Women Marathon: 4:35
• Women Half Marathon: 2:11

In this same time period, the Boston qualifying time remained 3:10 / 3:40 for the open division. But they were loosened significantly for Masters runners.

Big Changes Come for 2013

Until this point, there were other categories of guaranteed entry besides qualifying times, including:

• NYRR members completing 9 races in a year
• Cancelling and deferring entry to the following year
• Runners who have completed 15 NYC Marathons
• Lottery applicants who have missed three consecutive years

In the weeks preceding the 2011 New York City Marathon, NYRR announced that big changes were coming to their guaranteed entry process. The changes would begin with the 2013 race.

Moving forward, you could only defer for one year. After that, you’d lose your spot permanently. Fifteen time runners would no longer be guaranteed entry, but runners achieving finishing 15 races before 2015 were grandfathered in. And three-peat lottery rejects would no longer be guaranteed entry after 2013.

Why the changes? NYRR said that their internal analysis showed that if current trends continued, there would no longer be any room for non-guaranteed entry (lottery) runners. In other words, the existing categories of guaranteed entry were on pace to fill up the entire field.

As part of these changes, NYRR also announced new qualifying times. The qualifying times were set at 75% of age grade, and they now broke down into 5 year age groups:

In most cases, these qualifying times got significantly more strict. The only exceptions were the older women’s categories. The women’s qualifying times at 65+ were already quite strict, and they got loosened slightly.

These times would effectively limit the number of runners earning guaranteed entry via qualifying times – just as the other changes limited other categories.

After one year, these qualifying times were adjusted for the 2014 race. New categories were added for 75-79 and 80+. The times were loosened for older men and for women across the entire age range (changed times in bold):

In most cases, these qualifying times were still more strict than Boston’s. But there’s a huge gap between women 65-69 and women 70-74 – and the 70+ qualifying times for New York are far less strict than the equivalent Boston times.

More Changes In Store for 2016

The last big change came in 2016.

First, the times themselves changed.

Second, qualifying times from non-NYRR races were no longer guaranteed entry. Eligible NYRR races included Fred Lebow, NYC Half, Women’s Half, Brooklyn Half, Staten Island Half, Grete’s Great Gallop, and the Marathon. Qualifying times from other races would now be limited, and they would be first come, first served.

Third, the 15-time finisher path was reinstated. After NYRR announced in 2011 that this would be eliminated after 2015, they reversed course – and this pathway continues to exist today.

The new qualifying times included a new category for runners 35-39., and they were slightly more inclusive than the 2014 qualifying times. Here are the new qualifying times:

Back in 2011, the rationale for the changes was that the guaranteed entry runners were on pace to take up the entire race. Five years later, NYRR decided that they had gone too far in the other direction. This round of changes reflected a course correction that would increase the number of runners earning guaranteed entry.

The following statement was included at the bottom of the webpage outlining the opportunities for guaranteed entry:

The TCS New York City Marathon is known for being an extremely diverse race, and at New York Road Runners, we pride ourselves on offering many methods by which runners can gain entry. To continue to promote this diversity, we are excited to announce our decision to increase the number of runners who will be able to earn guaranteed entry by meeting time standards. To celebrate our most competitive athletes, we have also decided to relax those standards.

In reviewing entries from nearly a decade of New York City Marathon history, we found that the percentage of time qualifiers has been inconsistent across the different age categories; qualifying by time was tougher for runners in certain age groups. We intend for our new standards to offer equal access to our most competitive applicants across all age categories and to allow the highest possible percentage of runners from each category to earn guaranteed entry into the TCS New York City Marathon. We have also considerably increased the number of athletes who can qualify by time.

Please note that 2014 was the last year that guaranteed entry was offered under the three times denied provision, and this method of entry is no longer available for 2016.

Recent Changes for Non-NYRR Time Qualifiers

The most recent changes to the qualifying times were announced in late 2023 or early 2024.

The qualifying times themselves remained the same. But there were two key changes announced for time qualifiers from non-NYRR races.

First, entry would no longer be first come, first served. Starting with the 2024 race, NYRR would implement a cutoff time similar to the way BAA handles the Boston qualifying times.

Should the number of applications exceed the number of spots available, entry will only be granted to the fastest of each age and gender category. Those who do not meet the cut-off for their age and gender category will be placed into the non-guaranteed general entry drawing.

According to an analysis posted to Reddit, the cutoff in 2024 was around 18:30 below the NYRR qualifying times.

The second big change was that half marathon qualifying times would no longer be accepted from non-NYRR races beginning with the 2025 race. NYRR Half Marathons could still be used – but non-NYRR time qualifiers would only submit qualifying times from marathons.

The result of this second change was that the cutoff time required for non-NYRR time qualifiers to earn guaranteed entry to the 2025 race was “only” 13:20. This was confirmed in a Reddit thread and in an email from NYRR.

Although these deep cutoff times have caused some grumbling in the (non-NYRR) running community, in recent years the first come, first served process for registering had become unreliable.

As more people became eligible for an extremely limited number of spots, runners needed to get in the registration queue right away – and cross their fingers that everything went smoothly. Prior to this change, many runners reported issues with trying to register for guaranteed entry with their non-NYRR qualifying time.

Will Things Change Moving Forward?

The qualifying times themselves have not changed since 2016. That’s now almost ten years in the past.

Since then, the only major change to the process has been to non-NYRR time qualifiers. They’re still limited, but they’re no longer first come, first served. Everyone can apply – and the fastest runners are accepted.

In the past, NYRR has explicitly stated that their decisions have been driven by an analysis of current and project finish times. In 2011, they initiated major changes because they anticipated guaranteed entries filling up the entire field. In 2016, they relaxed the qualifying times and rolled back some of those changes to make the race more accessible.

They clearly want to maintain a balance between runners who are guaranteed entry and runners who earn entry through the lottery. So the question remains: will the future require additional changes to the process?