Boston qualifier
2027 Boston Marathon qualifying standards
Enter your age, division, and goal time to see whether it clears your standard, and whether it would have been enough to actually get in. Standards come from the B.A.A.; the cut-offs are what acceptance has historically required on top of them, and the net-downhill rule adds time back on courses that drop steeply, so compare course profiles to check yours.
Boston judges you on your age on race day, not on the day you ran the qualifier.
Only needed if you are running a steeply downhill course. See the net-downhill rule below.
Enter your age and division to see your 2027 Boston standard.
Standards by age group
Your age group is the one you fall into on race day, 19 April 2027. A time equal to the standard qualifies; it does not have to be faster. Qualifying times are judged on chip time, not gun time. See the B.A.A.’s official qualifying standards page for the source standards and full entry rules.
| Age group | Men | Women | Non-binary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80+ | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 | 5:20:00 |
| 75–79 | 4:35:00 | 5:05:00 | 5:05:00 |
| 70–74 | 4:20:00 | 4:50:00 | 4:50:00 |
| 65–69 | 4:05:00 | 4:35:00 | 4:35:00 |
| 60–64 | 3:50:00 | 4:20:00 | 4:20:00 |
| 55–59 | 3:30:00 | 4:00:00 | 4:00:00 |
| 50–54 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 45–49 | 3:15:00 | 3:45:00 | 3:45:00 |
| 40–44 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 35–39 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 | 3:30:00 |
| 18–34 | 2:55:00 | 3:25:00 | 3:25:00 |
What acceptance actually cost
More runners qualify than Boston has places, so the B.A.A. fills its field with whoever ran furthest under their standard. This is the buffer that was really required, by year. A zero means every qualifier who applied got in.
| Race year | Cut-off |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 4:34 under |
| 2025 | 6:51 under |
| 2024 | 5:29 under |
| 2023 | No cut-off |
| 2022 | No cut-off |
| 2021 | 7:47 under |
| 2020 | 1:39 under |
| 2019 | 4:52 under |
| 2018 | 3:23 under |
| 2017 | 2:09 under |
| 2016 | 2:28 under |
| 2015 | 1:02 under |
| 2014 | 1:38 under |
| 2013 | No cut-off |
| 2012 | 1:14 under |
The net-downhill rule
New for 2027: a qualifying time run on a course that finishes far below where it started has time added to it before it is compared against the standard: +5:00 from 1,500 ft of net drop, +10:00 from 3,000 ft, and no qualifying at all from 6,000 ft.
These are the races in our catalog the rule reaches, measured from each course’s own elevation profile. That is our estimate, not the B.A.A.’s determination: a digitized route is not accurate to a few tens of feet over a marathon, so a course sitting near a threshold is flagged rather than called. Confirm anything marginal with the B.A.A. and the race organizer.
| Race | Net change | Index |
|---|---|---|
| Eker'i Run Marathon | −5462 ft | +10:00 |
| REVEL Mt Charleston Marathon | −5056 ft | +10:00 |
| St. George Marathon | −2491 ft | +5:00 |
| N4 Elands Marathon | −1631 ft | +5:00near the threshold |
| Estes Park Marathon | −1574 ft | +5:00near the threshold |
| Mendoza Marathon | −1549 ft | +5:00near the threshold |
| Utah Valley Marathon | −1526 ft | +5:00near the threshold |
| Bhutan International Marathon | −1517 ft | +5:00near the threshold |
| Deseret News Marathon | −1420 ft | Nonenear the threshold |