Boston Marathon local entries

The Boston Marathon field for Monday, April 20 now comes with a hyperlocal roll call: 89 runners from Seacoast New Hampshire and southern York County, Maine, plus hundreds more from MetroWest, are listed for this year’s race. (seacoastonline.com) (metrowestdailynews.com) The Boston Athletic Association says the 130th Boston Marathon will be run on Monday, April 20, 2026, with runners starting in Hopkinton and finishing in Boston. The race remains capped at 30,000 athletes. (baa.org 1) (baa.org 2) Seacoast Online’s local list covers runners from communities across coastal New Hampshire and southern Maine. MetroWest Daily News reported that the field also includes hundreds of residents from Framingham, Natick, Milford, Wellesley and neighboring towns. (seacoastonline.com) (metrowestdailynews.com) Those local lists matter because Boston is not an open-entry race. The Boston Athletic Association says most runners must first hit an age- and gender-based qualifying standard, then survive a cutoff if applications exceed available spots. (baa.org 1) (baa.org 2) For 2026, qualifier registration ran from September 8 through September 12, 2025. The Boston Athletic Association said 33,249 applications came in from qualifiers, and 24,362 were accepted or were being accepted after verification, leaving 8,887 qualifier applicants out. (baa.org 1) (baa.org 2) The rest of the field is built through other channels, including charity entries. The Boston Athletic Association says its official charity program allocates invitational entries to nonprofit organizations that raise money in connection with race day. (baa.org) (baa.org) That mix helps explain why hometown coverage blooms in the final week before the race. Newsrooms and neighborhood outlets publish bib lists, profiles and training stories because many entrants spent months qualifying, fundraising or both before they ever reached Hopkinton. (metrowestdailynews.com) (nationaltoday.com) (baa.org) Boston has long generated those town-by-town rituals because it is the world’s oldest annual marathon, first run in 1897, and its field stretches from elite professionals to local club runners and first-time charity entrants. By next Monday, those separate hometown lists will all merge into one 26.2-mile race to Boylston Street. (baa.org)