Question for Medical Student Marathon Runners

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Clockwork Biology

Alright so I've got a question that hopefully one of you experienced med students can answer.

My girlfriend and I recently ran our first marathon together, and we finished under the 3:35 Boston qualifying mark for females. Unfortunately for males, the time to qualify for Boston is about 3:00 and I don't see myself hitting that mark before April this year or next.

So my question is: Are Medical Students eligible to enter Boston through the American Medical Athletic Association? Or is this only available once we graduate from medical school?

http://www.amaasportsmed.org/Home.htm

TL;DR: If you have utilized the AMAA to run the Boston Marathon, I'd appreciate any info you can give on the process. Feel free to PM me.
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I did one right before I started medical school and now I am preparing for another at the end of MS1
 
I may want to have a practice based on total knee/total hip arthroplasty. Can I give you my card now?
 
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And then there's the overweight marathon runners cha-ching!
 
Yo! This is actually really interesting. Let me know what you find out. It'd be nice to run it legally.
 
That's actually a good question since I need to age about 30 years for my time to be good enough to qualify and that's how I think I'd get in if I can't get much faster (I think I have a 3:30 in me at some point in my life. Hard to see myself beating that). Though isn't it like 1500 bucks to run with them? That seems like a lot for a med student if you aren't local.

Do NYC or Chicago if you haven't already.
 
I decided to contact the AMAA today and they answered my question. I'll post the answer here for any current/future SNDers that are curious.

From AMAA:

"Our AMAA Team takes runners who are committed to raising funds as a Fundraising Runner for a "non-qualifying spot". The BAA requires that any organization or nonprofit set the minimum at $5K plus the entry fee (~$575 for the total fees to the BAA).

You can join AMAA and come to our Sports Medicine Symposium at a reduced rate that is close to $75. Since you cannot do anything with CME hours yet, we keep the fee low. ***IF you raise money and are an AMAA FUNDRAISING RUNNER, the Symposium is included along with other amenities including singlet and some apparel among other things."​

When I asked if they would provide guidance during fundraising, and what we are fundraising for:

"We do provide tips and methods that have worked for past fundraiser runners. Ultimately, it takes weekly effort telling your story and using your email contacts. Our "cause" is our youth fitness campaign focused on the Mile --- we have a no-cost program to elementary and middle schools plus some other community groups for kids to train and run the mile. It is all-inclusive, not a fit or best athlete type program. Check out www.runamile.org"
​
Pretty absurdly high fundraising minimum for Boston to set. Personally, I'd rather spend that time on training than on phone calls and emails. Looks like I'll have to get in the old fashioned way.
 
Wow, for that amount of money I could run NYC or Marine Corp and stay in a five star hotel with room service for a week. Or St. George's and have a massive Vegas bender after I'm done.
 
Seriously thought you were talking about the whole "med school is a marathon, not a sprint" thing.........
 
Clockwork Biology said:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556152/

http://jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2093294

Might want to do your research first. You'll likely be working on the overweight and obese rather than on the athletic.
Click to expand...

1. n=45
2. "the existing evidence on whether long-term long-distance running causes osteoarthritis is currently insufficient"

Not damning, but anyone concerned about their health should opt for a less stressful physical activity for now.
 
yeah that's how it is for all the service groups that run though. And it's really not that terrible to raise that much money. You get a few big donors (area businesses, maybe your old summer job) and then just make a bunch of noise on FB, churches, everything else. Given enough time one can really do anything. I've raised that amount before for other things but you just can't be doing it often because people get tired of donating to you.
But those spots usually cap at like 16 runners and you have to make a donation to the team to even apply. Then you have to be chosen. They're really competitive and the only way they can really select people is based on their times and their commitment to whatever cause you're running for. A few of the hospital teams will cherry pick people (like ask them before they even apply) they know who've run it before, bandit or not.
Boston used to be big into Bandit running and rarely enforced it. My college ran it every year and so did many others without qualifying. It became part of the spirit of the race, ya dig? Like, just finishing it was big, whether you were 21 and came in at hour 6 or not.
But for obvious reasons it's not the same anymore.
Many of my friends in their 20's came in at the 65 year old woman mark, lol. It was like a ritual for us to see just how fast everyone actually was after the race.
I think I run a half in the time it takes to qualify for a full. Whoops. I'm hopeful in years to come bandit will become a thing again. Regardless of running it or not, you should go down on race day. Marathon Monday is wicked fun!
You might even be able to get into the med tents. A few RNs/EMTs/MedStudents I know do that
I'm assuming you're in the area for school lol
 
Last edited:
ScienceBrah said:
yeah that's how it is for all the service groups that run though. And it's really not that terrible to raise that much money. You get a few big donors (area businesses, maybe your old summer job) and then just make a bunch of noise on FB, churches, everything else. Given enough time one can really do anything. I've raised that amount before for other things but you just can't be doing it often because people get tired of donating to you.
But those spots usually cap at like 16 runners and you have to make a donation to the team to even apply. Then you have to be chosen. They're really competitive and the only way they can really select people is based on their times and their commitment to whatever cause you're running for. A few of the hospital teams will cherry pick people (like ask them before they even apply) they know who've run it before, bandit or not.
Boston used to be big into Bandit running and rarely enforced it. My college ran it every year and so did many others without qualifying. It became part of the spirit of the race, ya dig? Like, just finishing it was big, whether you were 21 and came in at hour 6 or not.
But for obvious reasons it's not the same anymore.
Many of my friends in their 20's came in at the 65 year old woman mark, lol. It was like a ritual for us to see just how fast everyone actually was after the race.
I think I run a half in the time it takes to qualify for a full. Whoops. I'm hopeful in years to come bandit will become a thing again. Regardless of running it or not, you should go down on race day. Marathon Monday is wicked fun!
You might even be able to get into the med tents. A few RNs/EMTs/MedStudents I know do that
I'm assuming you're in the area for school lol
Click to expand...

Back when I was worried about doing Chicago for the first time, I looked into the charity program for them. I think the average for those was only 900-1200 bucks or so that needed to be raised to get in, so 5k seems a lot to me.

And even then, I was a resident when I was signing up for that one, so my backup plan was to do Detroit or Minneapolis if I didn't get in through the lottery. It isn't as if residents have lots of people in their social circles willing to shell out cash so you can run. I theoretically could shell out a grand for a race now that I've got the money, but I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the idea.
 
Doudline said:
1. n=45
2. "the existing evidence on whether long-term long-distance running causes osteoarthritis is currently insufficient"

Not damning, but anyone concerned about their health should opt for a less stressful physical activity for now.
Click to expand...

Most of that stuff can be fixed with better form. I ran in a race this summer that also served as the USATF Masters championship at that distance. You don't know humility until you finish two seconds slower than a 72 year old (while being 3rd out of 19 in my own age group).
 
It's the prestige I guess? If that's the right word for it, idk. There's just something about running Boston (even before 2013) that makes it a really competitive application process. A few of my friends, fresh out of undergrad managed to scrape together the cash even with all their debilitating private loans. Crazy I know. But it's possible. So the 5K gets you the seriously passionate runners? Idk.
We were all going to run bandit last year and then realized we'd all share a cell for the afternoon and bailed. So we explored the charity teams and it's just nuts how hard it is to actually be accepted.
**And a 65 year old woman in a rainbow leotard and a pink tutu with zebra leggings came in about a minute ahead of me at the Hyannis Half, so I'm with you on that.
 
WingedOx said:
Most of that stuff can be fixed with better form. I ran in a race this summer that also served as the USATF Masters championship at that distance. You don't know humility until you finish two seconds slower than a 72 year old (while being 3rd out of 19 in my own age group).
Click to expand...

Posture and winning the genetics lotto, I'd wager. 😛
 
Clockwork Biology said:
I decided to contact the AMAA today and they answered my question. I'll post the answer here for any current/future SNDers that are curious.

From AMAA:

"Our AMAA Team takes runners who are committed to raising funds as a Fundraising Runner for a "non-qualifying spot". The BAA requires that any organization or nonprofit set the minimum at $5K plus the entry fee (~$575 for the total fees to the BAA).

You can join AMAA and come to our Sports Medicine Symposium at a reduced rate that is close to $75. Since you cannot do anything with CME hours yet, we keep the fee low. ***IF you raise money and are an AMAA FUNDRAISING RUNNER, the Symposium is included along with other amenities including singlet and some apparel among other things."​

When I asked if they would provide guidance during fundraising, and what we are fundraising for:

"We do provide tips and methods that have worked for past fundraiser runners. Ultimately, it takes weekly effort telling your story and using your email contacts. Our "cause" is our youth fitness campaign focused on the Mile --- we have a no-cost program to elementary and middle schools plus some other community groups for kids to train and run the mile. It is all-inclusive, not a fit or best athlete type program. Check out www.runamile.org"
​
Pretty absurdly high fundraising minimum for Boston to set. Personally, I'd rather spend that time on training than on phone calls and emails. Looks like I'll have to get in the old fashioned way.
Click to expand...

I looked at charity options when considering Boston... and then stopped as soon as I realized it was way too much that I'd be on the line for if I couldn't raise it.

Though it's not helpful for this particular race, I ran NYC Marathon (another of the big 'uns) by meeting their half marathon standard. Still required a lot of training/effort, but long runs of only 10-12 miles was so nice and 'short' compared to the 20+ for marathon training.
 
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