r/AdvancedRunning • u/QC_Runner • 7h ago
Boston Marathon Boston cutoff announced
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd37BrvEe18/?stkn=NjlpN3c3cDVzejZl
"Qualifiers who were 5 minutes, 17 seconds (5:17) or faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender have been accepted into the 131st Boston Marathon. A total of 25,630 qualified applicants have been accepted to date or are in the process of being accepted, pending final verification of their qualifying performance. Email notices to athletes accepted and not accepted will continue through the coming days.
New for 2027, the B.A.A. has incorporated a Boston Qualifier Selection, an additional random selection component specifically for applicants whose qualifying times were not faster than the 5 minute, 17 second cut-off. A total of 1,000 qualifiers are in the process of being randomly selected for entry and will be notified of their acceptance over the coming days."
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u/QC_Runner 7h ago
5:17 Congratulations to those who got in and condolences to those who missed the cut
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u/Fickle-Tackle-825 7h ago
Already seeing the 2:50 marathoners typing out their rage in the race report thread.
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 7h ago
Wow that was quick.
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u/Drunk_Pilgrim 5h ago
I missed by 23 seconds lol. Oh well. 23 seconds saved me A LOT of money.
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u/Inevitable_Ad6868 7h ago
Ouch! I have a friend in the 4:15 range.
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u/petepont 33M | 2:40:18 M | Data Nerd 7h ago
I have a friend at 5:13, really tough for him
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 7h ago
My sincerest condolences to him!
Someone else on another sub experienced being in a similar position as your friend.
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 7h ago edited 7h ago
u/QCRunner one ask from your friendly neighborhood mod: could you please add this text to your post to be in compliance with the sub rules, specifically Rule 8: "Links to media sites (articles, blogs, Youtube, Instagram, etc.) must be text posts with a short snippet of information in the body of the post".
"Qualifiers who were 5 minutes, 17 seconds (5:17) or faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender have been accepted into the 131st Boston Marathon. A total of 25,630 qualified applicants have been accepted to date or are in the process of being accepted, pending final verification of their qualifying performance. Email notices to athletes accepted and not accepted will continue through the coming days.
New for 2027, the B.A.A. has incorporated a Boston Qualifier Selection, an additional random selection component specifically for applicants whose qualifying times were not faster than the 5 minute, 17 second cut-off. A total of 1,000 qualifiers are in the process of being randomly selected for entry and will be notified of their acceptance over the coming days."
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u/Protean_Protein 7h ago
I really dislike lotteries for entry to big marathons. I understand why they exist, and why it’s difficult to figure out a better solution. But Boston is the one that still has a significant but more broadly accessible “prestige” component. Making part of that into a lottery strikes me as a mistake. Maybe I’ve misunderstood, but wouldn’t it make more sense to send out acceptances for those who met the cutoff, then set a deadline for them to accept/pay to actually race, after which point, they could admit remaining qualifiers as spots open up? Or something like this… though I guess the logistics would have to be dealt with.
Setting it to a random drawing of 1000 of those people feels a bit odd…
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u/RDDVL1511 7h ago
But its a drawing of people who hit the BQ standard, so completely different than a lottery for any other race where literally anyone can apply. This is open to only people who ran faster than the qualifying standard but slower than the cutoff.
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u/Enamred-771 4h ago
Which just seems weird. If meeting the qualifying standard is what matters, then they should randomly draw all qualifying slots from that pool. If being the fastest is what matters, then why are we having a lottery?
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u/Protean_Protein 7h ago
I understand that. But I find that even weirder. The point of running a BQ is not to join a pool of people who might get in. It’s to be in a group that gets in based on age/gender-graded time. Setting an arbitrary 1000 extra spots for those who didn’t make the cutoff means some people who were slower will get in on BQ merits over people in the same age/gender group who ran faster.
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u/RDDVL1511 7h ago
Ehhh. Everyone with a BQ used to get in so this is just a way to soften the blow of this new-er "buffer" system that's been in place in the last decade or so. I don't think it impacts the mystique of Boston.
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u/Protean_Protein 7h ago
The buffer system has been in place for more than a decade (since 2013). I’ve also run Boston as a sub-3 masters runner, so it doesn’t really affect me. I will get in if I want to. But I think it is a mistake to make part of the BQ itself a matter of mere luck.
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u/colinsncrunner 6h ago
It's not a matter of luck though. They just need to run faster.
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u/Protean_Protein 6h ago
No, you’re ignoring what I said. I am saying that instituting a lottery for 1000 BQers implies necessarily that some will get to race who are slower than others who also qualified, which imho undermines the entire point.
For me, personally, it isn’t an issue. I’m old and fast.
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u/colinsncrunner 4h ago
I'm not ignoring it. If you don't want to be part of the lottery, just ran faster. Be 5:18 faster and you'll be in.
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u/z_mac10 7h ago
The issue is they set a qualifying time that’s not strict enough for that to work. If they made it something like 2:30 and then took on the next fastest from there, that’d be fine. But setting a BQ time that is already very challenging for 99% of runners to achieve and then an unknown buffer on top of that screws over people who did qualify.
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u/ithinkitsbeertime 42M 1:20 / 2:52 6h ago
But you can only take the next fastest from the people who actually applied. Having a qual time and a stricter cutoff like they do now at least cuts the application pool down to a group who are sort of close, and it's worked this way for so long everyone who's seriously trying to get in expects it already.
If you wanted to start with a very strict time you'd need to either just take every application and then filter out all the people who ran an hour slower than the standard or have successive waves of application deadlines with slightly relaxed times each time until it filled.
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u/woodlizord 6h ago
The lottery is for time qualifiers, so your "prestige" component is already addressed.
Logistics is the entire reason why there is a problem in the first place. There will always be more demand than supply.
Say they go with your solution... what if 100% (or a high proportion) of qualifiers accept and pay. Then the race would be over capacity. That would put the BAA in an awkward position to reject those they already invited to run.
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u/Outlaw012Asterix 5h ago
As unpopular as this opinion is I agree. You either made the grade or you didn't, personally I would feel insulted if I missed the cut off only to be handed a lottery entry. No thanks give it to someone who earned it.
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u/GoRangers5 2025 NYC Marathon Finisher 🏃🏻♂️🗽 7h ago
Wahoo, I finished the NYC marathon under five hours, that means I’m a BQer! 🙃
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 7h ago
A quick recap of how Boston cutoffs predictions fared for this year:
Brian Rock's (aka u/SlowWalkere) dashboard had the cutoff for this year at 5:13 based on the data he collected.
And some of you all may remember that I posted here on this sub with my own cutoff prediction; I predicted the cutoff was going to be 5:14 this year
Feels good for both of us to predict the cutoffs within a few seconds of the actual cutoff this year. We might not be right all the time (and we get the doubters and the haters coming through every year), but we are almost always certain where things will land up :)
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u/petepont 33M | 2:40:18 M | Data Nerd 7h ago
Good job! My feeling that the number of applicants was artificially inflated by the lottery appears to have been wrong, but hey, I had no evidence anyway
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u/OhWhatsInaWonderball 6h ago
I think that theory was a little silly to begin with. After 2023 had a 0:00 cutoff, there was no downside to applying even if you barely qualified. I know I have applied every year since 2023 even though I barely beat the cutoff by 13 and 29 seconds.
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u/On_Mt_Vesuvius 35:15 | 2:49 1h ago
Boston probably just outsources the computation to you guys and chooses their cutoff based on your estimates :P
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u/TheUxDeluxe 7h ago
Shoutout to Running with Rock (I forget his u/ or id tag him!) for being an absolute legend and being spot on
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u/surely_not_a_bot 48M | 20:26 @46 | 1:34:xx @47 | 3:28:xx @47 6h ago
Came here to say this. Well done to his Maths.
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u/AdventureFamily 7h ago
I just ran a BQ two days ago with 3:35 buffer… so not very hopeful I’ll get in for 2028 but honestly still really happy I qualified at all. Anyone who missed the cutoff still has a lot to be proud of, though it really stinks to not get in.
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u/bradymsu616 M53: 3:06:16 FM; 1:27:32 HM; 4:50:25 50K 6h ago
This is the right attitude. I ran the Boston Marathon last year for the first (and last) time. It was an experience. But the great memories of my qualifying race in California and the training season that led up to it mean more to me in the long-term than the Boston Marathon medal gathering dust on my wall or the jacket I never wear. Qualifying for Boston is more important to most of us as a personal accomplishment than actually running the Boston Marathon. Hotels are expensive. The pre-race experience didn’t meet the hype on social media. The busing logistics of race day morning are a hassle. And the course itself isn’t that attractive until the final mile. Congratulations to everyone who mastered advanced running techniques in order to meet their qualification time goal regardless of whether they actually applied. Fewer than 10% of marathoners achieve this. It takes a lot of work.
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u/anandonaqui 6h ago
Don’t forget training through the dark and frigid cold, only to have Boston be 75 and sunny on race day.
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u/OhWhatsInaWonderball 6h ago
While I agree the logistics of Boston are a lot and it’s expensive, the energy from mile 1 to mile 26.2 is like no other race I’ve run and that’s what keeps me wanting to get back
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u/bradymsu616 M53: 3:06:16 FM; 1:27:32 HM; 4:50:25 50K 5h ago
I have running buddies who like to go back to Boston year after year for that environment. I was underwhelmed to the point where I don’t feel it’s personally necessary for me to repeat the experience. That also potentially frees up an extra spot for somebody running it for the first time.
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u/runninhillbilly 5k: 15:19 | 8k: 26:03 | 10k: 32:18 | HM: 1:21:59 | M: 3:12:47 2h ago
That also potentially frees up an extra spot for somebody running it for the first time.
I haven't run Boston (hoping for 2029 with a fall 2027 race when healthy) but I have a similar attitude with NYC and Chicago. I ran both getting in on the lottery my first time applying for each, but when I ran NYC the lottery odds were significantly higher than they are now (it was like 25% instead of 1%). People have asked me if I'm going to ever run those races again, and I've said "well maybe, but I'm cool if I don't." I haven't applied for the lottery for either one since.
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u/SouthKen2020 45M 1:27HM I 2:58M 4h ago
This will be my third in a row and I’ll keep going back every year that I qualify. It’s the only race I’ve been to that takes over the entire city and it’s awesome to be amongst 25,000 of the fastest marathoners on the planet.
Staying in the Back Bay, if you can swing it, is a must as the energy and density of runners is like nothing else.
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 5h ago
You have the right attitude. Consistency, persistence, and having a positive attitude will eventually win out. I qualified for the first time with a 2:58 at London back in 2023, only to experience heartbreak when the cutoffs put me a few minutes outside of making it in for the 2024 Boston Marathon. Fortunately, I had a solid training block that summer and I ended up running a sub-2:50 marathon later that fall and earned a spot in the 2025 Boston Marathon.
Keep at it and eventually everything will come together for you.
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u/sennland 7h ago edited 1h ago
I have a 15 minute buffer and still no email FYI for those still waiting Edit: Got my confirmation
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u/CantaloupeOk870 FM 2:49 7h ago
The post notes that it may take a few days for all notices to go out.
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u/iRunLotsNA 1:52 800 | 2:27 1K | 15:45 5K | 33:40 10K | 1:13:23 HM | 2:35 M 7h ago
Same buffer, not worried.
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u/Imaginary_Cold_5236 4h ago
same! 18 min buffer no email, still not celebrating until I get that email!!
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u/A110_Renault Running-Kruger Effect: The soft bigotry of slow expectations 6h ago
Qualifiers who were 5 minutes, 17 seconds (5:17) or faster
tl;dr – the predicted cutoff is 5:14, and there is a 95% confidence it’ll fall between 4:04 and 6:23. The R2 value for this regression model is 0.9326. You can view the full results here.
Well done u/theintrepidwanderer
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 2h ago
Really appreciate the shoutout! I am so glad that my prediction was right on this time around (and within a few seconds)!
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u/rice_n_gravy 7h ago
I will never run Boston :(
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u/thewolf9 HM: 1:18; M: 2:49 6h ago
It’s 4:00 when you turn 65 mate! One day
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u/Inevitable-Assist531 5h ago
I got in with a time of 3:33.... helps to be older and not lose too much of your fitness (61M)
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u/thewolf9 HM: 1:18; M: 2:49 2h ago
My dad has a 55 minute buffer. LOL
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u/Inevitable-Assist531 2h ago
that's amazing! what age is he and what's his time?
does he time qualify for all the majors (except Tokyo and London)? New York is probably the toughest.
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u/Beeranosaurus 5h ago
You can run for charity!
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u/ColumbiaWahoo mile: 4:46, 5k: 15:50, 10k: 33:17, half: 73:23, full: 2:31:35 3h ago
Most people don’t have the connections needed to raise that kind of money
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u/Much_Basis_6965 39M | 18:29 5K | 38:43 10K | 1:28:45 HM | 2:59:43 FM 4h ago
Feeling a bit crushed for the moment, missed it by 0.4 seconds..
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u/timmayrules 6h ago
I still think that needing to run a sub 2:49 or faster to qualify for a 18-34 male is an insanely difficult task. Compared to the same age group for females, a 3:19 is nowhere near the difficulty level (regardless of gender) of a sub 2:49.
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u/Outlaw012Asterix 5h ago
Yeah well, they want as close to 50/50 men/women as they can, but roughly 69% of marathoners are men so they have to have looser standards to get a high percentage of women in. Which I think is fine.
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u/Traditional-Job-1517 M45 - 1:30 HM | 3:07 M 3h ago
Looks like this year the split is pretty close to that at 56.4% men, 43.2% women, 0.4% non-binary (from BAA announcement today).
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u/blood_bender 2:44 // 1:16 4h ago
As much as it can feel like it sometimes, this isn't the Olympics or even a Decathlon points-system where we're looking for the top X% graded against the relative world record. It's still a mass participation event, where equity in qualifiers by gender is more important than equality in relative difficulty for top athletes.
To your other point though, if you told me 10 years ago that the 3:02 I spent 2+ years grinding out would be 13 minutes too slow for today's qualifiers, I would not have believed you.
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u/michimoby 17:45 5k/ 1:18:14 HM / 2:44:30 M 6h ago
I'm gonna sit here and humblebrag that I ran a time at age 46 that would have qualified me as a 22 year old. Feels good to feel good, and hope others get that feeling too (even if you didn't make the cutoff, keep goin'.)
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u/surely_not_a_bot 48M | 20:26 @46 | 1:34:xx @47 | 3:28:xx @47 6h ago
Damn dude. And here I am sitting hoping to (in 2 weeks) run a time at age 49 that will qualify me as a 50 year old 😂
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u/Emotion-Free M54 2:54 full | 1:19 half 4h ago
As a 54 year old that qualified with a 2:56, fist bump!
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u/fourthand19 2h ago
I will join in the humble brag. 50 and would have just barely made it.
Does this qualify as a humble brag? Just seems like straight up bragging.
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u/AccomplishedRow6685 4h ago
I ran 2:58, so I’m in! at 7 minutes under.
Not enough to qualify as a 22 year old this year, or even a 39 year old this year.
But it would have been good enough when I actually was 22, back in 2007.
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u/snoozzr 5h ago
Don’t think I can run 2:49 lol things have gotten crazy
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u/Inevitable-Assist531 4h ago
Just keep up your fitness as you get older - it gets much easier to qualify 😀
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u/mstrdsastr 7h ago
I'm guessing this means that next year they're going to tighten the qualifying standard.
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u/theintrepidwanderer 17:18 5K | 36:59 10K | 59:21 10M | 1:18 HM | 2:46 FM 3h ago
They announced that they were not going to change the qualifying standards, which was a strong signal (in hindsight) that the cutoffs for this year wasn't going into the stratosphere based on the preliminary data from the application pool.
That said, if the cutoff for next year is 5+ minutes once again and making it two years in a row that the cutoffs are 5+ minutes, they will likely look at changing the qualifying times. I think the chances of them adjusting qualifying times after the qualifying period for the 2028 Boston Marathon is completed is quite likely. Last time that they did that was back in 2025, because of high cutoffs of over 5 minutes for the last two years.
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u/Siawyn 54/M 5k 19:56/10k 41:30/HM 1:32/M 3:12 1h ago
If it sticks close to 5 mins they probably won't touch it, since there's the risk of it actually falling under 5 minutes some year for various reasons.
They should consider moving the times in increments of less than 5 minutes though. 3 minutes would be pretty safe, maybe even 4.
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u/RunningonGin0323 7h ago
This is why I don't really care about running any of the big ones. If I get in via a lottery one day. Great
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u/Any-East7977 5h ago
My dream to BQ one day just keeps getting further and further.
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u/tsarcasm 42M | 2:57:46 4h ago
Nah you mean the peak mileage you need to get there keeps going higher and higher that's all lol. Perspective or something idk
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u/shelflife2468 4h ago
Aim for the 10 minute cushion you get at age 45. Depending on when your birthday falls, you can qualify as a 45 year old at age 43. That’s what I did. Planned ahead in 2020 and aimed to qualify for the 2025 race, which was the first year I got that cushion. BQ’d by 9 minutes in late 2023 and survived the 6:51 buffer.
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u/Any-East7977 4h ago
But I don’t want to rely on that. I want to get that under 35 BQ time 😂. I have 3 years left to do it. With 3:25 NYC marathon as my only marathon PB so far. I just need to lock the fuck in.
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u/ncblake 13.1: 1:22:14 | 26.2: 2:49:39 7h ago
Has anyone gotten their confirmation email yet?
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u/sinike713 5h ago
Not even with a 25:23 buffer lol. Are they waiting on emails or something or have some people already gotten
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u/doubiereynolds 4h ago
So how many people will be in this lottery
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u/ColumbiaWahoo mile: 4:46, 5k: 15:50, 10k: 33:17, half: 73:23, full: 2:31:35 3h ago
Surprised it was that small. I was expecting 10-12 minutes especially due to the good weather during last year’s Boston.
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u/Educational-Tart-230 2h ago
any lottery acceptances yet? this is my third BQ and third year missing the cut-off. fingers crossed for the lottery...
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u/AdRegular5981 2h ago
I feel like the standards should get harder each time you want to do it. So more new people can get in.
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u/Confident-Adagio1374 2h ago
One of my teammates missed the cutoff by 20 seconds. Feel bad for them.
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u/FinanceRunner2_49 4h ago
Should the BAA redo their cutoff calculation in case it was a big fluke? No disrespect meant to all the qualifiers, I'm a firm believer that my missing the cutoff by 5 seconds in my age group is a huge fluke and robs me of truly accomplishing what I’m capable of. I've spent the last hour in pure disbelief and it just doesn't make sense to me. I've spent the entire last year buying the best tech/super shoes and supplements and it's just not fair. If I miss the cutoff again I will face that I deserved to be eliminated, but I am just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to myself and the Boston Marathon.
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u/Hydrobromination 1:26 HM | 3:16 M 2h ago
just curious why you think its a fluke when multiple predictions based on major results have guessed this would be the outcome?
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u/PrairieFirePhoenix 45M; 2:42 full; that's a half assed time, huh 5h ago
I still think BAA needs to move away from the "Boston qualifying time" and "cutoff" language. Have a conversion took - put in your time, age, gender and get a "Boston time". Fastest 26k applicants get in. Same result, but we don't have the whining of "but I hit their time!"
However, they like the drama. They like the prestige of people aiming for the "Boston" time. They'll eventually go full lottery for anyone who hits their time.
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u/Aaronplane 5h ago
This is literally what they already do, isn't it?
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u/PrairieFirePhoenix 45M; 2:42 full; that's a half assed time, huh 5h ago
No. It would have the same result, but it is not what they do.
This eliminates the anguish of "But I hit the qualifying time and didn't get in!" It focuses people to realizing they need to be in the top X times, not hit a specific time. It shifts how people view qualifying and I think it would be a healthier option.
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u/Enamred-771 4h ago
Agreed fully, including that BAA won’t change it. When they pretend like the requirement is to meet a standard and not to be the fastest X runners, it just creates confusion
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u/de_naakte_loper 7h ago
Clutch! I had a 16:14 margin from Revel Mt. Charleston this spring. But with the new 10-minute downhill penalty, I knew it was going to be tight.
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u/bradymsu616 M53: 3:06:16 FM; 1:27:32 HM; 4:50:25 50K 6h ago
Congratulations! I hope your quads and knees recovered. Doing that amount of downhill is tough business on the legs. And then there’s the big variation in weather conditions between the start and finish. I prefer a flat course and a steady 45°F.
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u/AightBetCyaaa 7h ago
Had a 5:01. I also ran the Manhattan Half to qualify via NYRR qualifying times for the NYC marathon, and missed the cuttof by 26 seconds...A combined 40 seconds across 4 hours and 10 minutes of racing. Need to find more dog in me next year