This past week, the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced the cut off time for the much anticipated Boston Marathon, taking place this October 2021. Usually run the third Monday in April, Patriot's Day, the B.A.A. had to postpone the 2021 event due to the COVID19 pandemic, following its cancellation altogether in 2020. 

Jennifer Heiner is a retail director with a New Jersey-based running company. In this position, she works closely with the company’s two founders as they continue to expand the race directing and coaching business into a fully realized retail brand, with four (soon to be five) boutique style stores. Under the retail leadership of Jennifer Heiner, the company has developed an extensive line of high-end performance apparel and sneakers appropriate for both casual runners and elite competitors. In addition to overseeing operations at the company’s four stores, she is tasked with strategic and business development, as well as assistance at the company’s five annual races. Ms. Heiner's business background is thanks to being a marketing graduate of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University. She is heavily involved in the local running community as well, far beyond the scope of her work duties, and is an avid marathoner herself. 

One race that has eluded Jennifer Heiner thus far is the Boston Marathon. It is essentially the Olympics of running for the amateur competitor. For those unaware of how the selection process works, it would be best to summarize from the B.A.A.'s website (www.baa.org) itself: 

This year, due to the pandemic that cancelled the 2020 race, the qualifying window was longer, so Boston Marathon hopefuls knew that they needed to have a significant "buffer" in order to actually get accepted to run the race. This year, that qualifying time had to be 7 minutes and 47 seconds faster than the qualifying time in order to be accepted by the B.A.A. to run the Boston Marathon on October 11, 2021. For example, for a female in the 18-34 age group, she had to run a 3:22:11 or faster in order to be able to run the race. Stiff competition indeed. The 2022 race is going to have a similarly long window of qualification, and now that more races are available to run, its likely that the competition will be even stiffer next year.