Boston Marathon qualifying standards allow runners to qualify for the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

by running a previous

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

with a stipulated result within a stipulated calendar time frame. The standards have been in place since 1970 for male runners and 1972 for female runners. The standards are published by the

Boston Athletic Association The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) is a non-profit dedicated to organized sports, with a focus on running, in the Greater Boston area. The B.A.A. hosts such events as the Boston Marathon, the B.A.A. 5K, the B.A.A. 10K, the B.A.A. Half Mar ...

(B.A.A.), in advance of the qualifying window. To "qualify" for the Boston Marathon runners need to have run a marathon at a time given for their gender and age (as shown in the tables below). Before the 2012 marathon, qualification allowed runners to register and run the race. Since 2012, "qualifiers" who do not meet additional cutoff criteria (see below) are not eligible to enter the marathon by virtue of time qualification.

Men’s qualifying standards by year

*Note: the minimum age before 1986 was 19.

Women’s qualifying standards by year

*Note: the minimum age before 1986 was 19.

Cutoff

Beginning with the registration for the 2012 Boston Marathon, a cutoff beneath the qualifying times was instituted. The cutoff time is given in minutes and seconds and is subtracted from the age group qualifying times to determine who will be allowed entry and who will not. For example, for the 2012 marathon, when registration closed and the 1:14 cutoff was announced, a runner who "qualified" with a time faster than 3:10:00, actually needed a time of 3:08:46 to earn entry into the marathon.

References

{{Qualifying standards in athletics Boston Marathon