Brian Rock 
When everything clicks on marathon morning, there’s no better feeling than crossing the finish line knowing that you left it all out there. But not every race is like that, and lots of things can derail your performance – the weather, a poorly timed illness, random life issues, or a federal shutdown that cancels your … Read more
The Tableau dashboard below collects data from marathons, tracks the number of finishers who meet their Boston qualifying time, and projects an estimated cutoff time for the 2027 Boston Marathon. I haven’t included the actual projection yet, but that piece of the tracker will go live in late November once there’s enough data to sufficiently … Read more
In early 2028, several hundred of the best runners in the United States will compete in the US Olympic Team Trials Marathon. Meeting this OTQ standard is a lofty goal – one that only the most talented and committed runners can strive for. In recent years, it has also become more difficult to achieve. After … Read more
Lately, I’ve been tracking which marathons are selling out and how early they’ve reached capacity. Last week, another race joined that list in record time. The 2026 Grandma’s Marathon sold out in less than twenty four hours. Over the summer, I noted that the race had been selling out more quickly in each of the … Read more
After my spring race didn’t go as planned, the 2025 Twin Cities Marathon was supposed to be my shot at redemption. But fate had other ideas, and as race day approached it became clear that the weather would not be conducive to a seriously fast race. I adjusted expectations, and I hoped that starting out … Read more
Lately, I’ve been tracking which marathons are selling out and how early they’ve reached capacity. Last week, another race joined that list: the 2025 Eversource Hartford Marathon. Like many races, the Hartford Marathon peaked over a decade ago. But after declining for a few years before COVID, it’s definitely on the rebound. The field is … Read more
The BAA made two changes to registration for the 2027 Boston Marathon. The more subtle change involved the start of the qualifying period and eliminating the ability to use a small subset of races to qualify for two different Boston Marathons. The big news was the new rules for downhill marathons. For years now, (some) … Read more
The BAA announced two changes for registration for the 2027 Boston Marathon. The big headline was the downhill results index. The subtler change was the beginning of the qualifying period for the 2027 Boston Marathon – and the elimination of the double dipping period. For the last several years, the start of the next qualifying … Read more
Today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for. The Boston Athletic Association announced the cutoff time for the 2026 Boston Marathon: 4:34. If you made it in, congrats! The outcome was slightly lower than I predicted, so I’m sure there are some happy and relieved runners out there who made it through by a hair. … Read more
When we bought our house in 2018, one of the selling points was that it had room for a home gym. It was a little run down and it needed some work, but it had a wall of mirrors and a lot of potential. Over the years, I’ve now renovated this room twice. The first … Read more