Boston Marathon: six waves

The 130th Boston Marathon used six starting waves Monday, sending more than 30,000 runners out of Hopkinton in a longer stagger than recent years. (wbur.org) The day began with wheelchair divisions just after 9 a.m., followed by professional men at 9:37 a.m., professional women at 9:47 a.m., para athletics at 9:50 a.m., and mass-participation waves starting at 10 a.m. (nesn.com) Boston Athletic Association organizers shifted from four waves to six for 2026, and WBUR reported the change was meant to spread runners out more evenly through corrals, aid stations and the course itself. (wbur.org) That change landed on one of Boston’s biggest annual civic days, when the marathon pulls runners from all 50 states and 137 countries onto a 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton to Boylston Street. (wbur.org) The race also reshaped the region’s Monday commute. Boston’s traffic advisory said parking bans and rolling street closures were in effect across the city, while the course also ran through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline. (boston.gov) For spectators and families, tracking moved to phones as much as sidewalks. CBS Boston said the Boston Athletic Association racing app carried live runner tracking, leaderboards, course maps and event information throughout the day. (cbsnews.com) The six-wave format did not change the race’s qualification structure. The Boston Athletic Association still capped the field at 30,000 entrants and kept its time-standard entry system for most runners. (baa.org) Boston Marathon organizers announced the six-wave plan in March, when bib numbers, corrals and start assignments went live in runners’ Athletes’ Village accounts ahead of Patriots’ Day. (baa.org) By late morning, the practical effect was visible in Hopkinton: runners kept leaving in smaller batches, while the rest of the region watched the same 26.2-mile ritual play out town by town toward Boston. (bostonglobe.com)