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Boston Qualifiers in the USA/Canada - 2003

The Boston Marathon is the only mass-participation marathon that requires qualifying times and those times become goal times for many runners. The times are, to some extent, age-graded, with those 35 and over given easier standards.
See: Boston Marathon Qualifying Times

We're often asked what courses are good Boston qualifying courses and where do people qualify for the Boston Marathon. While there is no specific answer for each individual, and while different races may be easier or harder in any given year due to weather or other factors - following is a factual list of those marathons that have the highest percentage of Boston Marathon qualifiers in their field and those with the largest overall number of qualifiers.

Note that different years may show different results as weather, course changes and other factors can affect the performance of a race from year to year.

The marathons below had the highest percent of Boston qualifying finishers in 2003. These courses will undoubtedly be among those ranked the fastest of all courses - but there are other factors that might cause a marathon to appear on this list or to cause a race to fall off this list. For a point-to-point course, a tailwind or headwind might make the difference from one year to the next. Some races (such as Boston itself) simply attracts faster runners, so the fact that a marathon is on this list might be an indication of the type of runner it attracts even more than the quality of its course. But, you can be sure that any marathon on this is not slow.

Rank	Marathon	Boston Qualifiers	Qualifying Percent*
1.	Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon (10/19/03 - Albany, NY)	176	39.1%
2.	Bay State Marathon (10/19/03 - Lowell, MA)	170	35.9%
3.	Boston Marathon (4/21/03 - Boston, MA)	4,998	29.3%
4.	Sugarloaf Marathon (5/18/03 - Carrabassett Valley, ME, ME)	76	28.1%
5.	Wineglass Marathon (10/5/03 - Corning, NY)	192	27.5%
6.	North Central Trail Marathon (11/29/03 - Sparks, MD)	102	27.2%
7.	Glass City Marathon (4/13/03 - Toledo, OH)	77	27.1%
8.	Rocket City Marathon (12/13/03 - Hunstville, AL)	223	25.6%
9.	Steamtown Marathon (10/12/03 - Scranton, PA)	349	25.3%
10.	Tucson Marathon (12/7/03 - Oracle, AZ)	294	24.5%
11.	Newport Marathon (5/31/03 - Newport, OR)	120	23.7%
12.	Capital City Marathon (5/18/03 - Olympia, WA)	107	23.7%
13.	Clarence Demar Marathon (9/28/03 - Keene, NH)	85	23.4%
14.	Cape Cod Marathon (10/26/03 - Falmouth, MA)	146	22.1%
15.	Jacksonville Marathon (12/14/03 - Jacksonville, FL)	172	21.7%
16.	Buffalo Marathon (5/25/03 - Buffalo, NY)	108	20.8%
17.	St. George Marathon (10/4/03 - St. George, UT)	892	20.7%
18.	Bayshore Marathon (5/24/03 - Traverse City, MI)	174	20.5%
19.	Forest City Road Races Marathon (5/11/03 - London, ON)	70	20.5%
20.	Maine Marathon (10/5/03 - Portland, ME)	127	20.4%
21.	Philadelphia Marathon (11/23/03 - Philadelphia, PA)	1,079	20.3%
22.	Coeur d' Alene Marathon (5/25/03 - Coeur d'Alene, ID)	50	20.2%
23.	Hartford Marathon (10/11/03 - Hartford, CT)	249	20.0%
24.	Harrisburg Marathon (11/9/03 - Harrisburg, PA)	67	19.9%
25.	Toronto Waterfront Marathon (9/28/03 - Toronto, ON)	156	19.8%
26.	Calgary Marathon (7/6/03 - Calgary, AB)	147	19.8%
27.	California International Marathon (12/7/03 - Sacramento, CA)	568	19.8%
28.	Quebec City Marathon/Marathon des Deux Rives (8/24/03 - Quebec City, QC)	212	19.3%
29.	Mount Desert Island marathon (10/19/03 - Bar Harbor, ME)	71	19.2%
30.	Yakima River Canyon Marathon (4/5/03 - Yakima, WA)	59	18.7%
*This list is limited to marathons with 250 or more finishers and percentages calculated ignore finishers over 6:00.

The races that have the most Boston Marathon qualifiers are, obviously, going to be skewed to those that have the most participants. Below is a list of the races that qualified the most people for Boston in 2003.

Rank	Marathon	Finishers	Boston Qualifiers
1.	Boston Marathon (4/21/03 - Boston, MA)	17,046	4,998
2.	Chicago Marathon (10/12/03 - Chicago, IL)	32,395	3,631
3.	New York City Marathon (11/2/03 - New York City, NY)	34,729	2,397
4.	Philadelphia Marathon (11/23/03 - Philadelphia, PA)	5,354	1,079
5.	Grandma's Marathon (6/21/03 - Duluth, MN)	6,868	896
6.	St. George Marathon (10/4/03 - St. George, UT)	4,433	892
7.	Rock 'n' Roll Marathon (6/1/03 - San Diego, CA)	16,185	798
8.	Austin Marathon (2/16/03 - Austin, TX)	5,360	752
9.	Columbus Marathon (10/19/03 - Columbus, OH)	3,993	657
10.	Honolulu Marathon (12/14/03 - Honololu, HI)	22,136	641
11.	Portland Marathon (10/5/03 - Portland, OR)	7,031	615
12.	Marine Corps Marathon (10/26/03 - Washington, DC)	15,957	608
13.	California International Marathon (12/7/03 - Sacramento, CA)	2,930	568
14.	Houston Marathon (1/19/03 - Houston, TX)	4,699	560
15.	City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon) (3/2/03 - Los Angeles, CA)	16,788	557
16.	Disney World Marathon (1/12/03 - Orlando, FL)	9,404	524
17.	Vancouver International Marathon (5/4/03 - Vancouver, BC)	4,342	518
18.	Richmond Marathon (11/15/03 - Richmond, VA)	2,780	497
19.	Victoria Marathon (10/12/03 - Victoria, BC)	2,655	447
20.	Ottawa Marathon (National Capital Race Weekend) (5/11/03 - Ottawa, ON)	2,576	436
21.	Detroit Free Press International Marathon (10/5/03 - Detroit, MI)	2,778	392
22.	Dallas White Rock Marathon (12/14/03 - Dallas, TX)	3,370	386
23.	Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon (5/4/03 - Cincinnati, OH)	3,825	379
24.	Toronto Marathon (10/19/03 - Toronto, ON)	1,899	351
25.	Steamtown Marathon (10/12/03 - Scranton, PA)	1,396	349
26.	Vermont City Marathon (5/25/03 - Burlington, VT)	2,121	343
27.	Tucson Marathon (12/7/03 - Oracle, AZ)	1,230	294
28.	Pittsburgh Marathon (defunct: 1985-2003) (5/4/03 - Pittsburgh, PA)	2,208	265
29.	Napa Valley Marathon (3/2/03 - Napa, CA)	1,735	263
30.	Seattle Marathon (11/30/03 - Seattle, WA)	1,975	252