Most people think Boston Marathon weekend begins on Monday. Anyone who’s been there knows it starts Saturday on Boylston Street, when the crowds are already thick, the energy is already electric, and the fast people are already racing.
On April 18, the Boston 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile return — with over 10,000 athletes expected to cross the finish line, and a professional field that would make any track fan’s head spin.
“The most anticipated weekend of road racing in America gets started with the Boston 5K and B.A.A. Invitational Mile,” said B.A.A. President and CEO Jack Fleming. “We’re counting down the days until the world comes to run in Boston.”
The Women’s 5K Has a Problem: Too Much Talent
Ethiopia’s Gela Hambese won in 2025 with a 14:53 — nearly an event record. She’s back. But so is essentially every fast woman on the planet.
Medina Eisa (14:16 5K personal best) leads the field on paper. Add Melknat Wudu, 2022 World Champion steeplechaser Norah Jeruto, and 2024 Olympian Daisy Jepkemei, and you have one of the more stacked short-road fields in recent memory. American Taylor Roe, who nearly caught Hambese last year, returns alongside World Cross Country representatives Katie Izzo and Emily Venters. Local favorite Maggie Donahue of Wellesley runs for the B.A.A. High Performance Team — and the home crowd.
The Men’s Race Has Two Former Champions and Two Faster Guys
Cooper Teare (2024 winner) and Morgan Beadlescomb (2023 winner) both want a second Boston 5K title. Neither is the fastest man entered. That would be Ethiopia’s Addisu Yihune and Mezgebu Sime, who have each run 12:49 for 5,000 meters — about four seconds clear of Teare’s personal best. Sean McGorty, a three-time U.S. World Championships team member, and Patrick Kiprop (59:14 half-marathon) add even more depth to a field that doesn’t have an obvious winner.
The Mile: A World Silver Medalist and a Hometown Favorite
Kenya’s Dorcus Ewoi won the 2025 B.A.A. Invitational Mile in 4:42.57, then picked up a World Championships silver medal in the 1500m. She’s the name to beat. But Massachusetts native and 2021 Olympian Heather MacLean — racing the mile here for the first time since 2022 — will have the crowd behind her.
The men’s field includes the entire Atlanta Track Club squad that recently set a 4x800m indoor world record. All 15 men entered have broken four minutes for the mile.
