Boston Marathon Week

Boston Marathon week has started with a deep elite field set for Monday, April 20, and early forecasts pointing to a cooler, drier race than usual. (baa.org) (weather.gov) The Boston Athletic Association says the 130th race will send runners from Hopkinton to Boylston Street on Patriots’ Day, with 32,494 entrants and about 30,000 expected to start. Citizens of 137 countries and all 50 states are entered. (baa.org) At the front, defending open champions Sharon Lokedi of Kenya and John Korir of Kenya are back, along with wheelchair champions Susannah Scaroni of the United States and Marcel Hug of Switzerland. The professional field also includes American record holders Conner Mantz and Emily Sisson. (baa.org) The men’s race brings back eight of the top 10 finishers from 2025, including Korir, Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, and Cybrian Kotut of Kenya. Benson Kipruto, the 2021 Boston winner and 2025 New York City Marathon champion, is also entered. (baa.org) The women’s field was announced in January as one of the strongest American groups Boston has had, with 13 United States athletes who have run under 2 hours 26 minutes. That list has changed since then: the Boston Athletic Association said on April 3 that Keira D’Amato, Natosha Rogers, Abbie McNulty Bennie and several others had withdrawn. (baa.org 1) (baa.org 2) Race organizers also changed the mass start this year. Instead of four large waves, the 2026 marathon will use six waves, with the Boston Athletic Association saying the shift is meant to improve bus loading, arrival in Hopkinton, and runner flow on the course. (baa.org) That matters for a race that still runs on a point-to-point course with narrow early roads, crowded athlete villages, and a long morning commute to the start. The six-wave format keeps the field cap at 30,000 but spreads runners into groups ranging from about 3,200 to 7,100 instead of four waves of roughly 7,500. (baa.org) Weather is the other major variable, and the early signal is favorable for distance running. The National Weather Service forecast for Boston on Tuesday showed highs near 68 on Saturday and 71 on Sunday, while the official seven-day forecast had not yet extended to Monday, April 20. (weather.gov) Boston’s climate normals are based on the 1991 to 2020 period, according to the National Weather Service, which is the benchmark forecasters use when they say a day may run below normal. Local forecasts cited by Boston-area media have pointed to Marathon Monday temperatures running roughly 5 to 15 degrees under that baseline. (weather.gov) (bostonglobe.com) The race arrives with extra history around the wheelchair divisions. The Boston Athletic Association marked race week by remembering Bob Hall, who became the first wheelchair division finisher in 1975, and the organization says Boston remains the world’s oldest annual marathon after its first running in 1897. (baa.org 1) (baa.org 2) By next Monday morning, the story will narrow from logistics and forecasts to the same question Boston asks every April: who gets through Hopkinton, Newton, and Boylston Street fastest when the race finally starts. (baa.org)