Qualifying for the Boston Marathon just got harder
It just got even tougher to bag a place in the Boston Marathon – the historic, undulating race from Hopkinton to Boylston Street in the US state of Massachusetts.
Today (16 September), officials from the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) announced changes to the qualifying standards for the 2026 edition of the race, which is the world’s oldest marathon and one of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors. While the standards remain the same for runners aged 60 and above, runners aged 18-59 must now meet qualifying standards that are five minutes quicker than those that were set for recent years.
Here is the complete list of updated qualifying standards for the 2026 Boston Marathon:
The BAA said that it made the changes after analysing historical race data and marathon participation levels across the world.
‘As we have witnessed in recent years, the sport of marathoning is growing and athletes continue to get faster,’ said Jack Fleming, President and CEO of the BAA. ‘At the same time, demand to participate in the Boston Marathon has steadily grown as well, and unfortunately in recent years we’ve had to turn away thousands of runners who’ve achieved Boston Marathon qualifying times.’
The qualification standards for the Boston Marathon – which is held every year on the third Monday of April, otherwise known as Patriots’ Day – were last changed in 2019, when they were also made five minutes quicker for runners across the board. According to Fleming, the BAA has turned away runners in the 18-59 age group ‘at the highest rate’ over the past few years.
That said, the new qualifying standards are not the quickest they’ve been in the race’s 128-year history. From 1980 to 1986, men and women in the 19-39 age group had to run 2:50 and 3:20 marathons respectively to qualify for the Boston Marathon. The time standards were then made slower when the field size was increased in 1987.
Achieving the Boston Marathon qualifying standard – or ‘BQing’ – does not guarantee entry into the race, however. Due to the high registration rates, the cut-off time is usually a few minutes faster than the published standard. In fact, last year, runners had to be five minutes and 29 seconds clear of their respective standards to nab a spot, with 11,039 runners who met the original qualifying standard still not getting a bib.
In addition to the news on the updated qualification standards, the BAA also announced that a sizeable 36,406 people registered for the 2025 edition race, which is a new record by over 3,000 applicants. Runners who applied for a place in the 2025 Boston Marathon, which will take place on Monday 21 April, will be notified in early October whether or not they’ve been accepted.
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