Achieving the dream of running the Boston Marathon got a bit tougher for time qualifiers on Tuesday as more than 12,000 applicants were not accepted into the 2025 race.
The Boston Athletic Association announced that runners in their respective age and gender groups have to be 6:51 faster than the posted qualifying times to earn a spot. A cut-off was expected, with many applicants hopeful that their times would be sufficient to race on April 21.
According to the BAA, 24,069 qualifiers made the cut, while 12,324 runners will face what has been a yearly disappointment for many hopefuls.
“Boston Marathon qualifiers have trained thousands of miles with the hopes of lining up in Hopkinton on Patriots’ Day, ready to race towards the finish in Boston,” BAA president Jack Fleming said in a statement. “The sport of marathoning is reaching record levels from both a participation and speed standpoint. Unfortunately, we’re unable to accept all athletes into the field, though we do want to recognize, thank, and applaud all whose goal was to be part of the 2025 event.”
The BAA also released a detailed breakdown explaining all applicants faced heading into next year’s race after announcing last week that the standards for the 2026 event will be tightened.
For the 2025 race, 36,406 people ran a qualifying time and applied (revised to 36,393 entries after accounting for 16 duplicate registrations), an increase over the 33,058 time qualifying applicants from 2024.
And while the number of applicants for Boston continues to increase, the field remains at 30,000 participants with thousands of qualifiers simply not being fast enough to make the cut-off.
Outside of the time qualifying bibs, around 7,000 slots will be allocated to charity entries and sponsors.
The cut-off has generated enormous buzz since being introduced in 2014 and increased over the years since its inception well into the 5 minute range. In 2021, the race was moved to October due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the field reduced to 20,000 runners along with a 7:47 cut-off — the largest ever.
