Boston Marathon qualifying times

These are the standards published by the Boston Athletic Association for the 2027 Boston Marathon. Your age group is your age on race day, April 19, 2027 — not your age when you run the qualifying race. Times are judged on net (chip) time.

The two right-hand columns in each block are not part of the B.A.A.'s table. They are the standard divided by the marathon distance of 42.195 km, which is the number that actually matters when you are standing on a start line: the pace you have to average for the whole race.

Men's standards

Women's and non-binary standards

The B.A.A. publishes an identical set of times for the women's and non-binary standards.

Source: Boston Athletic Association — Qualify, checked 25 July 2026. Standards change; the B.A.A. announced the current set on 16 September 2024. Always confirm against the B.A.A. before you plan a qualifying race.

Because more people qualify than the field can hold, the B.A.A. accepts the fastest applicants relative to their standard and publishes, after the fact, how far under the standard you needed to be. That margin is the cut-off. It is the number that actually decided entry, and it is the one most pages about Boston qualifying times never mention.

Across 2024, 2025 and 2026 alone, 32,250 runners who had met their qualifying standard were not accepted. Only 2022 and 2023 — the two editions closest to the pandemic disruption — had a cut-off of zero.

How to use this without guessing

Nobody can tell you the 2027 cut-off in advance; it is a function of how many people apply, and the B.A.A. only publishes it after registration closes. What the record does support is a planning margin rather than a prediction. The three most recent cut-offs are 5:29, 6:51 and 4:34. If you train to the standard exactly, history says you are applying into the group that gets cut.

The practical read is to treat your standard minus roughly five minutes as the target, and to know that the deficit is the same regardless of age group: a 4:34 cut-off took 2:55:00 down to 2:50:26 for an 18–34 man and 4:00:00 down to 3:55:26 for a 55–59 woman. In pace terms, five minutes over the marathon is about seven seconds per kilometre — small on paper, and the entire difference between an application and an entry.

This is the change most likely to catch out someone planning a qualifying race, and it takes effect with the 2027 registration cycle. The B.A.A. announced on 16 June 2025 that qualifying times run on steeply net-downhill courses will have time added to them after submission. It defines net-downhill as the elevation difference between the start and finish points.

• 1,500 to 2,999 feet (457.2–914.1 m) of net drop: +5:00 added to your submitted time.
• 3,000 to 5,999 feet (914.2–1,828.5 m): +10:00 added.
• 6,000 feet (1,828.6 m) or more: the course is not allowed for Boston qualifying at all.

Read that against the cut-off table and the consequence is blunt. A five-minute index on a course that drops 1,500 feet is larger than the entire 2026 cut-off of 4:34. Picking a heavily downhill race to grab a fast time can now cost you more than the time it gains. The B.A.A. says these indexes are in place for at least two years and points athletes at World Athletics and USATF to check course elevation and certification.

A qualifying time only counts if the race itself meets the B.A.A.'s criteria. The requirements it publishes are:

• The course must be certified by USA Track and Field, AIMS, or the national governing body for distance running in the country where it is held, attesting to the exact 26.2-mile distance.
• It must be a full marathon. Shorter distances are never accepted, whatever the equivalent-performance argument.
• Three or more officially entered competitors.
• The event must have been advertised and promoted before race day.
• Transponder timing as the official timing device. Failing that, written 5K checkpoint check-sheets supplemented by video of runners on course and at the finish.
• Run outdoors.

Explicitly not accepted: time trials, handicapped marathons, treadmill marathons, indoor marathons and virtual marathons. An Ironman marathon leg counts only if that leg is separately timed and certified at the exact distance. If a course has been altered since its last certification it must be re-measured and re-certified before the next running.

The B.A.A. also notes that it does not maintain a list of certified races — you contact the event directly to confirm. All times are subject to review and verification, and you are not entered until that verification completes.

The qualifying window for 2027 opened on 13 September 2025. Registration runs 14–18 September 2026 inside the B.A.A.'s Athletes' Village platform and closes at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday 18 September. It is explicitly not first-come, first-served — applying on the first morning gains you nothing, so there is no reason to rush a submission you have not checked.

If your time is not faster than the cut-off, you are not automatically out. The B.A.A. runs a Boston Qualifier Selection: approximately 1,000 qualifiers whose times fell short of the cut-off are drawn at random for entry. Eligibility is automatic — every applicant who met their standard but missed the cut-off goes into it. All qualifier applicants are notified of acceptance or non-acceptance by early October.