The Boston Athletic Association began notifying runners this week that they’ve been accepted into the 130th Boston Marathon, scheduled for April 20, 2026. More than 24,000 qualified athletes received the coveted email, but thousands of others who had run the time standard were left out after one of the steepest cutoffs in recent memory.
The B.A.A. said it received 33,249 applications from qualified runners during the September 8–12 registration period, but the official field is capped at 30,000.
Once spots for charity runners, professionals, and para athletes are factored in, only 24,362 qualifiers were accepted. That left 8,887 runners shut out, despite having achieved a Boston Qualifier.
To make the cut this year, runners had to be at least 4 minutes, 34 seconds faster than their age- and gender-based standard.
For men aged 18–34, that meant running 2:50:26 or quicker, not just the published qualifying mark of 2:55:00. Women in the same division needed 3:20:26 or faster, instead of 3:25:00. Non-binary athletes faced similar adjusted times.
It’s a cutoff that will sting for thousands of athletes who did everything asked of them, only to come up short by a handful of minutes. While not unprecedented, 2021’s pandemic-limited field required an even tougher 7:47 buffer, it’s among the harshest Boston has seen. In other recent years, the buffer has hovered closer to a minute or two.
The accepted field reflects the race’s international pull. Runners from 120 countries earned spots, alongside residents of all 50 U.S. states. The group includes 13,823 men, 10,429 women, and 110 non-binary athletes, with ages ranging from 18 to 83. Roughly 10,710 will be running Boston for the first time, while 719 “streakers” were granted guaranteed entry after completing ten or more consecutive Boston Marathons.
The popularity of the world’s oldest annual marathon shows no signs of slowing. With the rise of carbon-plated “super shoes” making fast times more accessible, qualifying marks that once guaranteed entry now only get runners to the starting line of a lottery-like process.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that the Boston Athletic Association had not adjusted qualifying standards since 2020. In fact, the B.A.A. did lower the qualifying times by five minutes for most age groups beginning with the 2026 Boston Marathon. This year’s cut-off of 4:34 therefore came on top of those tougher new standards. Additionally, the B.A.A. has announced that new time adjustments or penalties of 5–10 minutes will apply to downhill courses with more than 1,500 feet of net drop.
For those who missed out this time, the Boston Marathon’s charity program still offers a path to the start line, with applications opening later this fall. And for runners already looking ahead, the qualifying window for the 131st Boston Marathon opened earlier this month, giving them another chance to chase the standard.
The B.A.A. has long described Marathon Monday as a celebration of perseverance as much as performance. This year, for nearly 9,000 athletes who ran fast enough but not quite fast enough, it will also serve as a reminder of just how high the bar has been raised.
While the 2021 buffer of 7:47 was larger than 2026, the time needed to gain entry was still slower to due the different qualifying standards. For example in 2021, someone in the 18 – 34 category could gain entry with a time of 2:52:13 vs. the 2:50:26 you needed to run this year to gain entry for the same age group. My guess here is that had the same qualifying standards been in place for 2021, as are now in place for 2026, we still would have seen a buffer between 5 – 6 minutes, which just goes to show, how hard it was to again entry that year, even with the different qualifying standards.