By Chris Chavez
September 24, 2024
The Boston Athletic Association announced that the 2025 Boston Marathon cut-off time (the time faster than the qualifying standard for your respective age group and gender to be accepted into the race) was six minutes and 51 seconds.
Here’s what you need to know:
– A record-setting 36,393 qualifier applications were received during registration week, which was held from Sept. 9-13.
– A total of 24,069 qualified applicants have been accepted. 12,324 qualifiers were not accepted. The targeted field size for the 2025 race is 30,000 including qualifiers, invited participants, Para athletes and charity runners.
– The accepted entrants are made up of 13,740 men, 10,260 women, and 69 non-binary athletes.
– The most popular qualifying races were: 2023 Chicago Marathon (2,584 entrants) 2024 Boston Marathon (1,822 entrants) 2024 London Marathon (1,101 entrants) 2023 Berlin Marathon (809 entrants) 2023 CIM (749 entrants).
Here are the cut-off times over the years:
2012 – 1:14 (3,228 qualifiers rejected)
2014 – 1:38 (2,976 qualifiers rejected)
2015 – 1:02 (1,947 qualifiers rejected)
2016 – 2:28 (4,562 qualifiers rejected)
2017 – 2:09 (2,957 qualifiers rejected)
2018 – 3:23 (5,062 qualifiers rejected)
2019 – 4:52 (7,384 qualifiers rejected)
2020 – 1:39 (3,161 qualifiers rejected)
2021 – 7:47 (9,215 qualifiers rejected)
2022 – 0:00 (0 qualifiers rejected)
2023 – 0:00 (0 qualifiers rejected)
2024 – 5:29 (11,039 qualifiers rejected)
2025 – 6:51 (12,324 qualifiers rejected)
Photo by Kevin Morris / @KevMoFoto
Takeaways
The running boom is alive and well and people are running faster than ever.
This comes just a week after the BAA announced it is tightening qualifying standards for the 2026 Boston Marathon. For runners aged 18–59, the qualifying times will be 5 minutes faster across all age groups. Standards for runners 60 and older remain unchanged.
Here are the 2026 Boston Marathon qualifying standards for all age groups:
Men’s Standards
18-34: 2:55:00
35-39: 3:00:00
40-44: 3:05:00
45-49: 3:15:00
50-54: 3:20:00
55-59: 3:30:00
60-64: 3:50:00
65-69: 4:05:00
70-74: 4:20:00
75-79: 4:35:00
80+: 4:50:00
Women’s Standards:
18-34: 3:25:00
35-39: 3:30:00
40-44: 3:35:00
45-49: 3:45:00
50-54: 3:50:00
55-59: 4:00:00
60-64: 4:20:00
65-69: 4:35:00
70-74: 4:50:00
75-79: 5:05:00
80+: 5:20:00
Non-Binary Standards:
18-34: 3:25:00
35-39: 3:30:00
40-44: 3:35:00
45-49: 3:45:00
50-54: 3:50:00
55-59: 4:00:00
60-64: 4:20:00
65-69: 4:35:00
70-74: 4:50:00
75-79: 5:05:00
80+: 5:20:00
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
