Boston Marathon date set

The 2026 Boston Marathon is set for Monday, April 20, with bib numbers already posted and hometown runner lists spreading across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. (baa.org) The Boston Athletic Association said the race will be the 130th running of the marathon and will start on Patriots’ Day, the traditional Monday holiday that anchors the event each spring. (baa.org) The field is large even by Boston standards: 32,494 participants are entered, about 30,000 are expected to start, and runners come from 137 countries and all 50 states. (rrm.com) The Boston Athletic Association assigned bib numbers, corrals, and wave times on March 16, using a six-wave start for 2026. That step usually turns the race from an abstract goal into a concrete travel week for runners and families. (baa.org) That is why local newspapers are publishing long entrant roll calls now. MetroWest Daily News said its region alone has hundreds of residents with bib numbers, while Seacoastonline counted 90 runners from New Hampshire’s Seacoast and southern York County, Maine. (metrowestdailynews.com) (seacoastonline.com) Boston’s race works differently from many big-city marathons because most entrants qualify by running another marathon fast enough for their age and gender group, while others enter through charity programs or invited divisions. For the 2026 race, more than 24,000 qualified athletes were accepted, and the cutoff reached 4 minutes, 34 seconds faster than the listed standard. (wcvb.com) The course itself still runs point-to-point from Hopkinton to Copley Square in Boston, covering 26.2 miles through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston. Tens of thousands of spectators typically line those towns on race day. (boston.com) The professional field is also taking shape ahead of race week. Boston 25 News reported that the women’s elite field includes runners from 18 countries and 13 Americans who have run faster than 2 hours, 26 minutes in the marathon. (boston25news.com) For most communities, though, the first sign that Boston is close is simpler than an elite entry list: a neighbor’s name, age group, and bib number showing up in the local paper a week before Patriots’ Day. (metrowestdailynews.com) (seacoastonline.com)