Boston Marathon week set
The 130th Boston Marathon runs Monday, April 20, with more than 34,000 registered runners and all four defending champions scheduled to compete. ( ) Forecasts are calling for cool, dry race‑day conditions — roughly 5 to 15 degrees below normal for mid‑April. (bostonglobe.com)
Boston Marathon week is underway, with the 130th running set for Monday, April 20, and 30,000 runners expected on the course from Hopkinton to Boylston Street. (baa.org) The Boston Athletic Association said 32,494 participants are entered, with 30,000 expected to start, including runners from 137 countries, all 50 states, and 4,698 Massachusetts residents. (baa.org) The race is bringing back all four 2025 champions in the open and wheelchair divisions: John Korir, Sharon Lokedi, Marcel Hug, and Susannah Scaroni. Since the April 3 race-week update, though, the Boston Athletic Association has listed Scaroni among the wheelchair withdrawals. (nbcboston.com; baa.org) Boston is also arriving with a tighter gate this year. After the Boston Athletic Association quickened qualifying standards by 4 minutes and 34 seconds, it received 33,249 qualifier applications and accepted 24,362 of them. (nbcboston.com) That squeeze helps explain why the field is smaller than the total number of people who applied and why the race is adding a new traffic pattern on course. The Boston Athletic Association kept the field at 30,000 but split the mass start into six waves instead of four to ease bus loading, Hopkinton staging, and runner flow. (baa.org) At the front, the professional race is loaded again. The men’s field includes 25 athletes with personal bests under 2 hours 7 minutes, while the women’s field includes 13 American women who have run under 2 hours 26 minutes. (baa.org; baa.org) The American headliners include Conner Mantz and Emily Sisson, both national record holders, plus the full 2024 United States Olympic women’s marathon team of Sisson, Fiona O’Keeffe, and Dakotah Popehn. Galen Rupp, Clayton Young, Jess McClain, Annie Frisbie, Sara Hall, and Rory Linkletter are also in the announced professional fields. (baa.org; baa.org; baa.org) Race day starts early. Men’s wheelchair athletes are scheduled to begin at 9:06 a.m., professional men at 9:37 a.m., professional women at 9:47 a.m., and the six open waves from 10:00 a.m. through 11:21 a.m. (boston.com) The Boston Marathon remains one of the few races where entry itself is part of the story. By Monday, the focus shifts from cutoff times and bib assignments to whether a deeper, faster field can turn a cool Patriots’ Day into another quick run down Boylston Street. (baa.org; baa.org; baa.org)
