Good luck to everyone registering in the next few days! My 2nd time getting under BQ standard (first one was for 2020 race and we all know how that played out).
4:38 under standard and feel like I got 60-80% chance of getting in.
Post em up, if you are registering!
Happy reg day
Pre verified last month at BQ-12 or so
Required reading if anyone is not aware:
Big assumption here is consistent % YoY ratio of applicants to qualifiers. This ignores significant drop off in international travel to the US in 2025.
We’ll see how this plays out in terms of cutoff this year.
Very few of the marathons that go into that analysis are international
Registered for #2 with a 10min buffer. I am pretty confident I’m getting a bib this year but I also was not subject to the 5minute time standard change for under-60 runners…
Compared to the 2025 race:
Note the standards for 2026 are faster and likely the reason for the slight decrease in quantity of applications.
4:34 cutoff.
If I read your OP correctly, you are in! Congratulations! My first time was a couple of years ago and the .25mi on Boylston St was enough to make me want to go back again and again.
I was chatting with my neighbor on Friday after my run while he was waiting for his buddy to pick up to play golf
“So, when’s your next marathon?” he asked me
“I’m not sure” I answered and gave him a list of Spring races that I’d be interested in
“Not Boston?”
“Oh GOD NO!!!”
This surprised him
“Really? Why not?”
I then explained - as best I could - about qualifying, then the cutoffs
“That’s crazy!” he said, surprised even further “so you might think you’re in, then find out that you’re not?”
He then made a really interesting comparison, which may or may not be accurate, but feels about right
“It’s like you go to buy a car, find one you really like, and the dealer agrees to a price you can afford, goes to the finance guy and he says ‘nope. your credit score says … sorry’”