The Boston Marathon Announced Its Cut Off Time For 2026, With Record Rejections

A record number of people applied for the 2025 Boston Marathon, and a record number were rejected.

This year, 36,406 people successfully ran a qualifying time and applied to run the 2025 Boston Marathon, but with more people trying to enter, the BAA had to enforce a 6:51 cut off time below each qualifying standard, meaning you had to run almost seven minutes quicker than your qualifying time. With 24,069 runners accepted into the race, more than 12,000 runners were unsuccessful. 

The 6:51 cut off is significantly more than the 5:29 cut off of 2024, and is the second-highest in history. A harder cut off time was also expected this year, following an announcement last week that the qualifying times for the 2026 and 2027 Boston Marathons were changing, and getting tougher.

The hallowed sub-three marathon needed to qualify for Boston is now a 2:55 for men aged 18-34, and every age group up to 60 has seen their times reduced (full updated qualifying standards can be seen here or below).  

Boston Marathon has a final field of 30,000 runners, so those who accept their place are joined by some 6,000 other runners, including elites, para athletes, age group runners, charity runners, tour operators, sponsor places and runners who have at least 10 consecutive finishes (and hit the time standard). 

This year’s qualified field includes 13,740 men, 10,260 women, and 69 non-binary athletes, and for around 11,300 athletes it’ll be their first Boston Marathon. 

The top five marathons at which runners achieved their Boston Qualifier were Chicago (2023), Boston (2024), London Marathon (2024), Berlin Marathon (2023) and California International Marathon (2023). 

The qualification window for the 2026 Boston Marathon opened on 1st September 2024 and runs through to the end of the registration week in September 2025. 

Qualifying times for the 2026 & 2027 Boston Marathon

History suggests runners will need to be at least two minutes faster than these times to be confident of running the necessary standard. These times are set for the 2026 and the 2027 Boston Marathons.