The countdown is on as registration for the 129th Boston Marathon opens subsequent Monday, Sept. 9, and runs via to Friday, Sept. 13. Runners from world wide who’ve met their Boston qualifying time can submit their purposes for the 2025 race, however qualifying is simply the beginning. The true query is: will your time be quick sufficient to beat the 2025 cut-off?
Final 12 months, 33,058 hopefuls submitted their occasions for the 2024 Boston Marathon, however a staggering 11,000 have been rejected, because the cut-off time jumped to 5 minutes and 29 seconds. Merely hitting the qualifying commonplace wasn’t sufficient—you needed to crush it. Solely 66 per cent of candidates toed the beginning line, the second-lowest acceptance price within the occasion’s historical past.
This 12 months, with much more runners aiming to qualify, the competitors to get into the world’s most prestigious race will likely be more durable. With the B.A.A. asserting they’re sustaining their area measurement of 30,000 runners for 2025, many who hit the official BQ (Boston Qualifier) time for his or her age group will discover themselves in the identical place—questioning if their time is nice sufficient to beat the dreaded cut-off time.
Earlier Boston Marathon cut-off occasions and candidates (2018-2024)
| YEAR | FIELD SIZE | QUALIFIER APPLICATIONS RECEIVED | QUALIFIER ATHLETES ACCEPTED | QUALIFIER ATHLETES REJECTED | CUT-OFF TIME |
| 2024 | 30,000 | 33,058 | 22,019 | 11,039 | 5:29 |
| 2023 | 30,000 | 23,267 | all | 0 | 0:00 |
| 2022 | 30,000 | 22,936 | all | 0 | 0:00 |
| 2021 | 20,000 | 23,824 | 14,609 | 9,215 | 7:47 |
| 2020 | 31,500 | 27,288 | 24,127 | 3,161 | 1:39 |
| 2019 | 30,000 | 30,458 | 23,074 | 7,384 | 4:52 |
| 2018 | 30,000 | 28,260 | 23,198 | 5,062 | 3:23 |
How does Boston Marathon qualifying work?
Registration for the Boston Marathon isn’t first-come, first-served. The B.A.A. makes use of a rolling system that favours the quickest runners. So, whereas attaining a qualifying time is required, solely the speediest in every age and gender group will likely be granted entry. And that’s simply the beginning. The 30,000 spots aren’t all up for grabs—many are reserved for elite and invited athletes, charity runners and sponsors, leaving about 23,000 spots for qualifiers. This implies hundreds of hopefuls, who rightfully achieved the requirements, could possibly be on the sidelines.
The qualifying window for the 2025 Boston Marathon opened in September 2023, and can formally shut on Sept. 13, 2024. The appliance course of is hosted through the B.A.A.’s on-line platform, Athletes’ Village, and registration will prioritize the quickest qualifiers amongst every age and gender group for acceptance.
What can candidates anticipate?
If final 12 months’s record-breaking numbers are any indication, the cut-off time for the 2025 Boston Marathon might fall between six and eight minutes. With marathon working booming worldwide, the race expects round 35,000 purposes, which means runners might want to go nicely past the minimal qualifying occasions to safe a spot. The precise cut-off time won’t come out till all of the purposes are processed after the registration deadline. For many who qualify, the entry price is USD 250 (CAD 335), and costs will solely be processed as soon as athletes are formally accepted.
Purposes will likely be processed over two to a few weeks following the Sept. 13 deadline, with runners seemingly discovering out whether or not they acquired in by the top of the month. The 2025 Boston Marathon is scheduled for Monday, April 21, Patriots Day in Massachusetts.