09/16/2026
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Registration for the 2027 Boston Marathon opened today, and closes on Friday at 5 p.m.
For the first time in more than a decade, meeting the standard is no longer the only way in. Among the qualifiers who miss the cut-off, roughly a thousand will still get in through a random draw the B.A.A. is calling the Boston Qualifier Selection.
The math behind the change is simple. Every year thousands of runners hit the standard and get turned away because faster runners were also applying. Last cycle it was more than eleven thousand. Boston is admitting, quietly, that the sport has outrun its own gates.
The other change is quieter but sharper. Times set on courses that drop more than 1,500 feet net now carry an adjustment β five minutes on moderate descents, ten on the steepest ones. Boston is telling qualifiers that not all fast times are the same.
The 132nd Boston Marathon is on April 19, 2027.