Erie or Lehigh Valley PA marathons for BQ attempt? (Read 243 times)

I don't know either one but I read this article today by Hal Higdon who is basically saying "ya you have until September but do it earlier"   There will probably be some 2013 nonfinishers that will be autoqualified and of course the popularity surge from the last week will clog up the registrations .   Good luck on the BQ,  just get it done quick

here is the Hal Higdon article : "Qualifying for Boston 2014"   http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/askhal/2013/4/23/qualifying-for-boston-2014.html

Wolfwalker, that's part of the appeal of the Lehigh Valley race, it's on Sept 8th, which should be before registration opens, the Erie race is on the 15th.  If they open registration the second week of Sept like they did last year, then I'll have missed the first week if I run Erie.  Of course this is only a concern if I can go BQ-5 or possibly BQ-10.  I'd prefer to be able to register at the first opportunity open to me, instead of hoping that there is still space by the time I run my race.  For that reason I'm leaning heavily towards Lehigh.  But I'm also hearing good things about Erie.

MrFinn, that's really good to hear, since I'm leaning towards that race.  It's a lil bit closer to me (by 4 hours) and I have some friends in the area that I could stay with to keep costs down.  I probably have an irrational fear of hills, just because all of my running is flat.  But I do get to run hills occasionally when we visit the inlaws, and I still tend to handle them ok.

Since I am from the LV, I say do Via. Like mentioned, weather can get warm but most of the course is on trails with lots of shade, which should help (I run on multiple parts of the course often). Hoping this will be my first marathon this year.

I did Lehigh Valley a couple years ago with the same idea of BQ just before registration opened.  It was successful for me as I aimed for BQ-5 and came in a little better than that..

The thing that impressed me the most was how well the race organization communicated with runners prior to the race.  There was storm related flooding that caused a change in parts of the course.  They scrambled to get the modified course certified and used numerous emails / facebook posts to keep runners informed of the challenges and planned solutions.  There was a clear commitment to making sure the race happened and BQs would be accepted by BAA.

It was rather warm and humid on race day, but after a summer of training it didn't seem to hurt me much.

If this was in 2011, I ran the half. Hurricane Irene (I think?) completely trashed parts of the course a week before race day and they did have to modify the course but they got it recertified ridiculously quickly. I was really impressed with the communication they had with runners while all this was happening.

I'm a local and I'm running the full this year as my first. The weather is a crapshoot (although it was 50* at the start last year - I didn't run it then) but that's just a risk you have to take.

 

Jessica, yup! At a minimum we can FE if I don't run, since it is my backyard, but hopefully my body will cooperate and let me run it.

Hope you can run it!  Me, you and April so far for an FE, maybe we'll get some others jumping in later too.  My first FE (my first race that I'm traveling to also!).

 

daisymae25 and Gustav1 are also local. Jess and I have met Daisy but have yet to meet Gustav (even though he and I share some running routes, ha)

Very cool!  I'll have to figure out how I'm gonna work it, I might be up there a couple of days early if I can stay with some friends that are nearby (trying to keep costs down), or just the day before if I do a hotel (less than ideal to have to drive 6 hours the day before running a marathon, but oh well).  But we can sort out all the details as it gets closer, should be fun!

Eerie...it's flat and much of it is right along the late.   But if you're willing and able to wait until Oct, go with the WineGlass Marathon.  Ever so slightly downhill, from Bath to Corning, and all the glorious fall colours and crisp air the autumn in the Finger Lakes area cares to produce.

Thanks.  I'm gonna go with Lehigh since I want to try to qualify before registration opens.