It’s getting harder and harder to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and that the difficulty for 2026 just took another big jump.
The Boston Athletic Association announced Monday that it began notifying qualifiers of their acceptance into the 2026 Boston Marathon, with 24,362 runners making the cut for April’s race.
With 33,249 applicants meeting the initial qualifying time for their age group, 8,887 were turned away. The cutoff time was historically quick. Athletes had to run 4 minutes, 34 seconds faster than the qualifying time for their age group — and that’s on best of the five minutes that had already been shaved from previous qualifying standards when the BAA tightened qualifying marks this year.
“The sport of marathoning is gaining momentum worldwide, and we recognize the dedication it takes to qualify and earn a spot on the starting line for the Boston Marathon,” said Jack Fleming, president and CEO of the B.A.A. “The BAA looks forward to showcasing the spirit of our running community to the thousands of qualifiers who’ve today officially circled Marathon Monday, April 20, on their racing calendars. Unfortunately, we’re unable to accept all applicants into the event, but we do want to applaud all who train and aspire to participate in the Boston Marathon.”
Despite the BAA lowering qualifying standards for each age group by five minutes for the 2026 race — with the hope of avoiding significant cutoff times and rejected qualifiers — applications remained high.
The 33,249 applicants is just about 3,000 fewer than last year and more than the 33,058 that applied for the 2024 race under slower standards.
In the fastest age group, men aged 18 to 34, runners had to post a time of 2 hours, 50 minutes, 26 seconds; nearly three minutes faster than the 2:53:09 that was required to make the cut for 2025.
It’s another huge jump in competition for the world’s oldest marathon as running post-COVID boom continues. The BAA was able to accept all qualified runners in both 2022 and 2023, a leniency that seems permanently part of the past as the sport continues to grow.
“Every Monday, we see reports from marathons around the country and international marathons as well,” Fleming told the Globe last year. “There’s a metric that we have been seeing — not just over the past 52 weeks, but maybe the past 104 weeks — where we saw year-over-year, races in general were up. The sport is up between 8 percent, 9 percent, 10 percent.”
The 130th Boston Marathon will take place on April 20, 2026.
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.
About the Author
