I promise I’ll post a recap of the Reykjavik Marathon eventually 😊 But I had to dust off this sadly neglected blog to talk about the fiasco that is the Wicked Fast Poconos Marathon.

Just over a year ago, on September 13, 2025, I ran a 3:17:41 at the Wicked Fast Marathon outside of Jim Thorpe, PA. It was a PR of just over a minute and a Boston Qualifier by over 27 minutes. I was over the moon. Since this marathon happened the first day of the 2027 Boston Marathon qualifying period, I was excited to punch my ticket to Boston so early on. I used my Boston 2025 time to get into Boston 2026, and then used my new, faster time to get into a faster corral for that race. I had no reason to think the course was anything but legit.

I submitted my time when pre-verification for 2027 opened up in July, and then again a few weeks ago when registration opened up for Boston 2027. And then, last Friday, I got an email from the Boston Athletic Association saying the Wicked Fast course did not cover the 26.2 distance and therefore couldn’t be used as a qualifier. Wicked Fast also held a last ditch BQ marathon on September 13, 2026, the final day of the 2027 qualifying period, and I’ve since learned that all of those BQs got tossed as well.

The BAA allowed us to submit alternate BQ times if we had another one from the qualifying window. I had two to choose from: Boston and Reykjavik. (I know, a real case of “but my diamond shoes are too tight!”) I submitted my Boston time, which was nearly 19 minutes under my BQ standard, and I just received my official acceptance for 2027 this afternoon. So I’m good. (Selfishly, though, I’m bummed because I thought Wicked Fast was my PR! I mean, maybe I still would have beaten my previous PR of 3:18:46…. But the whole experience is kind of ruined.)

My heart breaks for everyone who worked their asses off for those BQs at Wicked Fast only to be told “well, someone screwed up the course, so you’re SOL.” It’s still unclear what exactly happened. I’m seeing rumblings online that someone submitted a Strava map to the BAA that showed the course was only 26.11 miles. Like others, I call bullshit on this because I don’t believe Garmin/Strava was remotely accurate on the wooded trail we ran on in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I mean, for a good portion of the race, my watch claimed I was running 18 minute miles. Let’s be real here.

But let’s assume the race did F up the distance (on two separate occasions!) It’s such a bad look ESPECIALLY because this race markets itself as a BQ race. It’s a point to point net downhill, but the decline (680 feet) is well under the new rules Boston put in place for downhill marathons. Wicked Fast pushed this as a Boston legal downhill marathon (truthfully, the downhill was so slight that I’m not sure I would have noticed it had I not been told it was downhill.) It’s all over their website. Just…. Yikes.

Apparently the race directors are in talks with the BAA to prove the race was valid, but that’s little consolation to everyone who was counting on this race to get them into Boston.