Boston Marathon weekend
- The 130th Boston Marathon weekend is underway with the expo and pre-race events active around Hopkinton and Copley Square. (wcvb.com) - Organizers expect about 30,000 athletes and families in the city for the race weekend. (wcvb.com) - The schedule features rolling starts just after 9 a.m., and forecasts predict cloudy, wet, and chilly conditions. (wmur.com)
Boston Marathon weekend is in full swing in Boston, with the 130th running set for Monday, April 20. (baa.org) The Boston Athletic Association says 30,000 participants will race on Patriots’ Day, and Boston.com reports the field includes runners from more than 130 countries and all 50 states. (baa.org) (boston.com) The public-facing center of the weekend is the Bank of America Boston Marathon Expo at the Hynes Convention Center, open Friday, April 17 through Sunday, April 19 at 900 Boylston Street. The Boston Athletic Association says the expo is free and includes bib pickup, sponsor displays, and stage programming. (baa.org) Race day begins in Hopkinton and ends 26.2 miles later in Copley Square, following Route 135 through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and into Boston. Boston.com says the 2026 race uses six start waves instead of the four used in prior years. (boston.com) The first starters go off just after 9 a.m. on Monday. WMUR reports the men’s wheelchair division starts at 9:06 a.m., the professional men at 9:37 a.m., the professional women at 9:47 a.m., and Wave 1 at 10 a.m., with later waves continuing through 11:21 a.m. (wmur.com) That schedule turns a single race into an all-day regional event, with runners, volunteers, and spectators spread from MetroWest to Boylston Street. The Boston Athletic Association says more than 10,000 volunteers support the marathon from start to finish. (baa.org) The race also lands on Patriots’ Day, the Massachusetts holiday that has long tied the marathon to a civic ritual as much as a sporting event. The Boston Athletic Association says it organized the first Boston Marathon in 1897, making it the world’s oldest annual marathon. (baa.org) Weather is expected to shape the day, especially before the start. GBH reports temperatures around sunrise Monday will be in the 30s, with west winds at 5 to 15 miles per hour and Boston temperatures near 48 degrees around noon. (wgbh.org) That setup may favor fast times for runners while leaving spectators colder along the course. GBH says the air should stay mainly dry after Sunday’s showers, with only a slight chance of a brief sprinkle during the race. (wgbh.org) By Monday morning, the crowds in Copley Square and the buses headed to Hopkinton will give way to the familiar rhythm of Marathon Monday: staggered starts, a long west-to-east run, and a finish line on Boylston Street. (baa.org) (boston.com)
