Men’s course record
2:01:52
John Korir · 2026
- Average pace
- 2:53 / km
- Terrain-adjusted
- −1.11 %
Boston Marathon
Boston, USA The third Monday in April, Patriots' Day Founded 1897
Qualified for by nearly everyone on its Hopkinton start line.
Overview
Nearly everybody around you on the start line at Boston has run a qualifying time to be there, which no other Major asks of almost its whole field.
Race day is Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts public holiday, so the whole route is lined, and the Red Sox play a morning game that empties into Kenmore Square as the runners come through. The course runs point-to-point through eight towns, out of Hopkinton and through Ashland, Framingham and Natick. You'll hear the Wellesley College scream tunnel, at about 20.9 km, before you see it. Then come the Newton hills, Heartbreak at 33.5 km, and the run down through Brookline and Kenmore: right on Hereford, left on Boylston.
The thing most runners get wrong is the start. Hopkinton is the highest ground on the course, and the first 5.0 km fall away fast enough to cost you the Newton hills later.
Race day is Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts public holiday, so the whole route is lined, and the Red Sox play a morning game that empties into Kenmore Square as the runners come through. The course runs point-to-point through eight towns, out of Hopkinton and through Ashland, Framingham and Natick. You'll hear the Wellesley College scream tunnel, at about 20.9 km, before you see it. Then come the Newton hills, Heartbreak at 33.5 km, and the run down through Brookline and Kenmore: right on Hereford, left on Boylston.
The thing most runners get wrong is the start. Hopkinton is the highest ground on the course, and the first 5.0 km fall away fast enough to cost you the Newton hills later.
- When
- The 2027 Boston Marathon is on Monday, 19 April 2027, starting at 10:00am local time on Hopkinton.
- Course
- Boston's course climbs 276 m in all, with its lowest point at 2 m and its highest at 140 m.
- Entry
- Entry to Boston is by qualifying time or charity place (33,656 applied), and costs US$270 for 2027.
- Field
- The 2026 Boston Marathon had a marathon field of 30,000.
- Weather
- Across 29 years, Boston's race-day temperature has a median of 13.2 °C.
- Records
- The Boston Marathon course records are 2:01:52 (John Korir, 2026) and 2:17:22 (Sharon Lokedi, 2025).
Marathon Course · every marathon course, measured the same way
Boston Marathon
Qualified for by nearly everyone on its Hopkinton start line. Hopkinton → Copley Square, Massachusetts, USA.
- Distance
- 42.2 km
- Ascent
- 276 m
- Descent
- 413 m
- Net
- −137 m
Course map and elevation
5 km splits marked · hover or drag the profile below to move along the courseElevation · a third-party GPX of the 2026 race, checked against the certified distance · USGS NED 10 m · smoothed 100 m 2–140 m
—
0.08.517.025.433.942.4
kmmi — elev — grade — hover or drag the profile
The highest point on the course is the start line, 140 m in Hopkinton, and nothing comes near it again. The first 5.0 km fall 72 m. It's the steepest stretch on the course, and it ruins people who go with it.
The long middle is close to flat: no 5 km split between 10.0 km and 30.0 km changes by more than 7 m. That's why the hills that follow feel worse than their size. From about 30.0 km the Newton hills climb in steps to Heartbreak, the steepest climbing kilometre of the race at 29 m, topping out near 33.5 km.
Then it falls away, 39 m down between 35.0 km and 40.0 km, through Brookline and Kenmore to the lowest ground on the course at 39.9 km. After that comes the short rise onto Boylston Street and the finish. Add up the energy cost of every gradient and, for a three-hour runner, the course comes out about 2 min quicker than a flat 42.195 km (1.11 %).
Take it with you
Course GPX Organiser's course map
The GPX is ours: our resampled line, a point every 25 m, carrying USGS NED 10 m elevation rather than the GPS noise a watch file usually holds.
USGS NED 10 m, a third-party GPX of the 2026 race, checked against the certified distance, smoothed 100 m · marathoncourse.com/marathons/boston/ · checked 2026-09-23
How to enter: qualifying times
Almost every Boston entrant has to earn a place with a time, and no other Major asks that. The standard for men aged 18–34 is 2:55:00, and 3:25:00 for women. It eases by age group to 4:50:00 and 5:20:00 at 80+. The B.A.A. also publishes a non-binary standard, identical to the women's time at every age group.
Meeting the standard only buys you an application. For the 2026 race 33,249 people applied and 24,362 were accepted, which meant running 4:34 faster than your standard to get in. The 2027 registration week drew 33,656 applications for a field of about 30,000. For the first time the B.A.A. added a Boston Qualifier Selection drawing: roughly 1,000 places for runners who beat the standard but missed the cut-off.
Two things changed for 2027. Qualifying times run on steeply downhill courses are now adjusted: five minutes are added at 1,500 ft of net drop and ten at 3,000 ft, and nothing run past 6,000 ft counts at all. And the entry fee for accepted qualifiers is US$270, charged only once you're in.
The other way through is a charity place. A record 215 non-profits share almost a tenth of the field. The B.A.A. sets no minimum; each charity sets its own, from about US$6,000 to US$15,000 and up.
Meeting the standard only buys you an application. For the 2026 race 33,249 people applied and 24,362 were accepted, which meant running 4:34 faster than your standard to get in. The 2027 registration week drew 33,656 applications for a field of about 30,000. For the first time the B.A.A. added a Boston Qualifier Selection drawing: roughly 1,000 places for runners who beat the standard but missed the cut-off.
Two things changed for 2027. Qualifying times run on steeply downhill courses are now adjusted: five minutes are added at 1,500 ft of net drop and ten at 3,000 ft, and nothing run past 6,000 ft counts at all. And the entry fee for accepted qualifiers is US$270, charged only once you're in.
The other way through is a charity place. A record 215 non-profits share almost a tenth of the field. The B.A.A. sets no minimum; each charity sets its own, from about US$6,000 to US$15,000 and up.
History
Boston was first run in 1897, inspired by the first Olympic marathon a year earlier, and it's the world's oldest annual marathon. It ran every year until 2020, when it was cancelled for the first time in 124 years.
- 1897First edition, 19 April — 15 starters over 24.5 miles from Ashland; John J. McDermott wins in 2:55:10
- 1924The start moves from Ashland to Hopkinton and the course goes to the full 26 miles 385 yards
- 1966Bobbi Gibb, refused entry, runs anyway in 3:21:40 — ahead of two-thirds of the field
- 1967Kathrine Switzer runs with a number; official Jock Semple tries to tear it off her mid-race
- 1972Women officially admitted; Nina Kuscsik is the first official women's winner
- 1975Bob Hall is admitted as a wheelchair entrant and finishes in 2:58 — the first at any major marathon
- 1980Rosie Ruiz crosses first, having joined the race half a mile out; disqualified eight days later
- 1986Prize money introduced, after the professionals refused to run without it
- 1996Centennial — 38,708 entrants, the largest marathon in the world at the time
- 2011Geoffrey Mutai runs 2:03:02, the fastest marathon ever run to that point and not a world record
- 201315 April: two bombs at the finish line kill three spectators and injure at least 264
- 2018Desiree Linden wins in freezing rain — the first American woman since 1985
- 2020Cancelled for the first time in 124 years
- 2021Run in October, with the field cut to 20,000
- 2026John Korir runs 2:01:52; all three men on the podium beat the old course record
1900192019401960198020002020
Course records
Pace is derived from the certified distance. Terrain-adjusted figures come from the same model that ranks every course on this site.
Women’s course record
2:17:22
Sharon Lokedi · 2025
- Average pace
- 3:15 / km
- Terrain-adjusted
- −1.11 %
Race day: start times and cut-offs
- 10:00am
- 5:30pm
- Every mile from 2
Boston starts in Hopkinton, 38.6 km from the finish in a straight line. No other Major's start is so far from its finish, and getting there is its own exercise.
Buses load on Charles Street at Boston Common from 6:45am, and the last one leaves at 9:30am. There's no later option: miss it and you miss the race. Parking in Hopkinton is limited and has to be arranged in advance.
Fluid stations are at every mile from mile 2, with three nutrition depots on top of them. The finish line closes at 5:30pm; runners who cross after that are recorded, but not as official finishers.
Buses load on Charles Street at Boston Common from 6:45am, and the last one leaves at 9:30am. There's no later option: miss it and you miss the race. Parking in Hopkinton is limited and has to be arranged in advance.
Fluid stations are at every mile from mile 2, with three nutrition depots on top of them. The finish line closes at 5:30pm; runners who cross after that are recorded, but not as official finishers.
The morning, hour by hour
- 9:06am
- Wheelchair men
- 9:09am
- Wheelchair women
- 9:30am
- Handcycles and duos
- 9:37am
- Professional men
- 9:47am
- Professional women
- 9:50am
- Para athletics
- 10:00am
- Wave 1 · red
- 10:15am
- Wave 2 · white
- 10:28am
- Wave 3 · blue
- 10:41am
- Wave 4 · yellow
- 11:01am
- Wave 5 · green
- 11:21am
- Wave 6 · orange
- 5:30pm
- Finish line closes
The 2026 schedule. The B.A.A. hasn't published 2027 wave times.
Race-day weather, 1995–2025
- Median
- 13.2 °C
- Warm years
- 7 of 29
- Wet years
- 5 of 29
Race-day mean temperature, 1995-2025. Lime marks the hottest edition; the coldest and wettest carry a label only, so the colour still means one thing.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Boston Marathon downhill?
On balance, yes. It descends 413 m and climbs 276 m, finishing 137 m below the start. Almost all of the loss is early, 72 m of it in the first 5.0 km alone. That's what makes the Newton hills at 30.0 km so expensive: they land on legs that have already absorbed a long descent.
USGS NED 10 m lidar, sampled every 25 m, smoothed over 100 m. Raw-to-smoothed ratio 1.27.
Why can't a world record be set at Boston?
It fails both tests, and either would be enough on its own. A record course can lose at most a metre per kilometre; Boston loses 137 m over 42.2 km, which is 3.2 m per kilometre. A record course's start and finish must also be within 21.1 km of each other, and Hopkinton and Copley Square are 38.6 km apart. That's why Geoffrey Mutai's 2:03:02 in 2011 was the fastest marathon ever run at the time and still not a world record.
Hopkinton-to-Copley drop and separation from this site's line, against World Athletics Competition Rules Part III.
How hard is Heartbreak Hill, really?
Smaller than its reputation and worse than its size. It's the steepest climbing kilometre on the course, 29 m from about 32.4 km, roughly a 2.9 % average, which on its own is unremarkable. What makes it count is where it sits: it's the last of four climbs in the Newton hills, and it tops out at 33.5 km, right where a marathon usually decides itself.
Derived from this site's elevation profile: steepest continuous climbing kilometre, measured every 25 m. The steepest kilometre in either direction is the descent out of Hopkinton, at 41 m.
Does a time run at Boston still qualify for Boston?
Yes, at face value. The course is USATF-certified, and although it's net downhill, its 137 m of loss is less than a third of the 1,500 ft at which the B.A.A. started adding five minutes in 2027. Boston's own downhill rule doesn't catch Boston.
B.A.A. 2027 net-elevation time index, applied to this site's measured net drop.
How fast do you actually have to run to get in?
Faster than the standard, and nobody knows how much faster until registration closes. For 2026, 33,249 people applied and 24,362 were accepted, so the cut-off landed at 4:34 under the standard. The 2027 week drew 33,656 applications. New for 2027, about 1,000 places go to a drawing among qualifiers who missed the cut-off.
B.A.A. registration announcements, September 2026.
How many people run it?
More than 30,000 took a marathon place in 2026.
Organiser figures for the 2026 edition.
What is the weather like on race day?
About 13.2 °C during a typical race: that's the median across 29 years, which have run from 6.5 °C to 26.8 °C. 5 of the 29 were wet.
ERA5 reanalysis for the race date, 1995-2025.
Can I use a time here to qualify for Boston?
Boston's own downhill rule doesn't catch Boston. The course drops 137 m from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, and the B.A.A. only starts adding time at 1,500 ft of net loss, more than three times that. A time run here counts at face value. The course is USATF-certified, so it qualifies. What it can't do is hold a record.
Net drop −137 m from this site's course line; 2027 adjustment None. Certification certified: USATF-certified and World Athletics Platinum Label; certified for qualifying, but not eligible for records.
How accurate is the elevation figure?
It comes from USGS NED 10 m, sampled every 25 m along the course line and smoothed over 100 m. The raw-to-smoothed ratio here is 1.27. Around 1.3 means the model is reading the ground, not rooftops; above about 2.0 the total climb carries real noise, and the net change is the sturdier number.
0 missing samples · 1 bridge spans corrected.
Sources
Every fact on this page, its source, and the date it was checked · 10
| Fact | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Course line | Third-party GPX published for the 2026 edition, validated against the certified 42.195 km (measured 42.428 km, 0.55% long). Archived with its hash in data/raw/sources. | 2026-09-20 |
| Elevation | USGS NED 10 m lidar via OpenTopoData, sampled every 25 m, smoothed over 100 m. Raw-to-smoothed gain ratio 1.27, which is clean. One bridge span at 23.9 km is interpolated. | 2026-09-20 |
| Race-day weather | ERA5 reanalysis via the Open-Meteo archive, Patriots' Day 1995–2025 at the Hopkinton start, 09:00–17:00 local — the hours the course is actually open. 2020 (cancelled) and 2021 (run in October) are excluded, so 29 editions. | 2026-09-18 |
| Course records | 2026 and 2025 results. Korir 2:01:52 (2026); Lokedi 2:17:22 (2025). | 2026-09-23 |
| Qualifying standards and the downhill adjustment | B.A.A. published standards for 2027, and the net-elevation time index introduced at the September 2026 registration: +5:00 at 1,500–2,999 ft, +10:00 at 3,000–5,999 ft, ineligible at 6,000 ft+. | 2026-09-23 |
| Registration numbers | B.A.A.: 33,249 applications and 24,362 accepted for 2026 at a 4:34 cut-off (the 130th-qualifiers release; a later release restates the 2026 total as 33,267). 33,656 applications for 2027. | 2026-09-23 |
| Race-day times and transport | B.A.A. athlete information for the 2026 race: wave starts 9:06am–11:21am, last bus 9:30am, finish line closes 5:30pm. The 2027 schedule is not published yet. | 2026-09-23 |
| Entry fee | US$270 for accepted qualifiers, 2027, charged only on acceptance. A single flat fee, with no US/international split. | 2026-09-23 |
| Record eligibility | World Athletics Competition Rules, Book C, Part III — Competition Rule 31.21: a record course may lose no more than 1 m per kilometre, and its start and finish may be no more than 21.098 km apart. Boston loses 136.8 m — 3.24 m/km — and separates by 38.55 km. It fails both, which is why the fastest times run here are not records. | 2026-09-18 |
| Field size, charity places and history | Field of 30,000 official entrants. A record 215 official charities for 2027, sharing almost 10 % of the field, with minimums set by each charity rather than the B.A.A. Founding in 1897, the eight cities and towns, and the timeline entries. | 2026-09-23 |
Until the Boston Marathon · 19 Apr 2027
— days
— hrs— min— sec
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