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Springtime in Boston is marked by blooming daffodils, the hopeful start of another Boston Red Sox season, and the Boston Marathon.
This year’s race on Monday, April 20 marks the 130th anniversary of the race, and with a favorable early weather forecast, and an especially fast elite field, it could be a race for the ages.
No matter if you’re running, spectating, or following the race from afar, here’s everything you need to know about the 2026 Boston Marathon.
The 2026 Boston Marathon marks 130 years since the race’s inception in 1897, making it a significant milestone in the history of the world’s oldest annual marathon. Runners from 137 countries and all 50 U.S. states will take the starting line on April 20, cheered on through eight communities from Hopkinton to Boston. The event attracts around 500,000 spectators, making it New England’s most widely viewed sporting event. There are 32,494 participants entered (with 30,000 expected to run on race day), including 18,277 men, 14,101 women, 116 non-binary entrants. There are 4,698 Massachusetts residents entered in the race and more than 10,000 volunteers supporting the event.
New for this year, the 2026 Boston Marathon features six start waves instead of four. While the overall field of 30,000 participants remains unchanged, the waves range in size from 3,200 to 7,100 athletes—down from roughly 7,500 per wave—developed with the help of crowd scientists to improve flow at every stage of race morning.
For what is believed to be the first time in history, all four defending open and wheelchair division champions—Sharon Lokedi, John Korir, Susannah Scaroni, and Marcel Hug—plus two of the fastest American runners in history—women’s American record holder Emily Sisson (2:18:29), and Zouhair Talbi (2:05:45, No. 3 on the all-time U.S. list) will all compete in the same edition of the race. The men’s field alone features 24 sub-2:07 runners, with Benson Kipruto—the first man to win all three U.S. World Marathon Majors—among the headliners. The women’s field is led by defending champion Sharon Lokedi of Kenya, who blazed to a course-record 2:17:22 last April.
The B.A.A.‘s annual Giving Day on March 13, 2026, raised over $2 million—the single highest day of fundraising in the marathon’s history—supporting the Official Charity Program. In all, runners are likely to surpass last year’s record of $50.4 million for 172 nonprofit organizations through the charity program.
Last year, there were 119 active members of the Boston Marathon Quarter Century Club, which grants automatic entry to runners with 25+ consecutive finishes, collectively having finished a combined 3,888 Boston Marathons. Expected to return for the 2026 Boston Marathon are Mark Bauman (Flushing, Michigan), who has recorded a record 56 consecutive finishes since 1969 and Patty Hung (Orinda, California) who owns the women’s record of 39 consecutive finishes.
Other Quarter Century club runners include Dave McGillivray (Medford, Massachusetts) with 53 consecutive Boston Marathon finishes, Daniel Larson of New York (49), Ludovit Cap of South Carolina (48), Mike Beeman of New Hampshire (48), and Mark Buciak of Chicago (47).
Among the top celebrities running this year’s Boston Marathon include, Bryan Arenales, 2025 Love Island Season 7 winner; Zdeno Chara, former Boston Bruins captain and Stanley Cup champion; Chelsea Clinton, author, advocate and daughter of President Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton; Jeff DaRosa, musician, Dropkick Murphys; Chris Herren, a former Boston Celtics player and recovered addict; Kristine Lilly, former Team USA soccer player; Suni Williams, astronaut and trailblazer; Amby Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon Champion; and Des Linden, the 2018 Boston Marathon champion, who is running the six-day 155-mile Marathon des Sables April 4-10 in Morocco.
Runners and fans can watch the Boston Marathon on ESPN2, with coverage beginning at 9 a.m. ET and continuing through 12:30 p.m. ET. On local TV, WCVB Channel 5 begins its coverage at 4 a.m. ET and runs throughout the day with extensive race coverage, interviews, and finish-line stories. The marathon will be livestreamed on the Very Local app, the ESPN App (access to ESPN required), and FloTrack (subscription required).
6:00 A.M. ET – Military March
9:06 A.M. ET – Wheelchair Division – Men
9:09 A.M. ET – Wheelchair Division – Women
9:30 A.M. ET – Handcycles & Duo Participants
9:37 A.M. ET – Professional Men
9:47 A.M. ET – Professional Women
9:50 A.M. ET – Para Athletics Division
10:00 A.M. ET – Wave 1
10:15 A.M. ET – Wave 2
10:28 A.M. ET – Wave 3
10:41 A.M. ET – Wave 4
11:01 A.M. ET – Wave 5
11:21 A.M. ET – Wave 6
The women’s American contingent may be the strongest in Boston history. The entire 2024 U.S. women’s Olympic marathon team will be on the start line of the 2026 Boston Marathon, including Emily Sisson, 34, Fiona O’Keeffe, 27, and Dakotah Popehn, 30. Sisson is the U.S. record holder in the marathon (2:18:29), O’Keeffe (2:22:10) is coming off a fourth-place finish at the 2025 New York City Marathon, while Popehn (2:24:20) was the top U.S. finisher (12th place) at the Paris Olympics.
The field also includes former American record holder Keira D’Amato, last year’s top American Jess McClain (2:22:43, 7th overall), Sara Hall (2:20:32), the fifth-fastest American woman in history, last year’s 8th-place finisher Annie Frisbie (2:23:21), Susanna Sullivan (2:21:56) and Erika Kemp (2:22:56), who joined McClain on the U.S. World Championships team in Tokyo.
With American record-holder Conner Mantz sidelined with an injury, the American men will be led by 2024 U.S. Olympian Clayton Young, 32, who placed seventh at Boston last year in a new PR of 2:07:04 and finished ninth at the World Championships marathon in Tokyo last September. Also generating buzz is 26-year-old Alex Maier, who won his marathon debut in 2:08:33 last year and nearly broke Mantz’s U.S. half marathon record with a 59:23 in Houston in January.
Other American men to watch include Zouhair Talbi, 30, a Moroccan-born U.S. runner who lowered his PR to 2:05:45 in Houston in January; Biya Simbassa (2:06:53), who as 12th at last fall’s New York City Marathon; Ryan Ford, (2:08:00), who was 10th in the Boston Marathon last year; and 39-year-old, four-time Olympian Galen Rupp (2:06:07 personal best in 2018). Top Canadian runner Rory Linkletter (2:06:49), who trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was sixth in Boston last year will be another top runners in the 2026 Boston Marathon.
In the days before the marathon, there are dozens of shakeout runs and running brand activations throughout the weekend, plus the 2026 Boston Marathon Fan Fest at City Hall Plaza, which features live music, entertainment, photo-ops, meet and greets, and the Samuel Adams Run Pub beer garden.
The City of Boston hosts One Boston Day as a community commemoration ahead of race weekend. It was established to honor the victims, survivors, and heroes connected to the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15, 2013.
The free, public expo, where runners pick up their race bibs, runs at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center—Friday 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.–7 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m.–6 p.m. The expo also features the official Boston Marathon merchandise store and a packed speaker schedule, including panels with elite athletes John Korir, Benson Kipruto, Sharon Lokedi, Marcel Hug, and Catherine Debrunner, as well as a forward-looking conversation on how AI is transforming endurance sports.
Nearly 10,000 participants race 3.1 miles through Back Bay, starting near Boston Common and finishing at the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, with a stellar professional field of top American and international athletes.
The Invitational Mile features some of the top professional milers in the world, including World Championships silver medalist Dorcus Ewoi and local Olympian Heather MacLean, along with scholastic student-athletes from each of the eight cities and towns along the Boston Marathon route.
New in 2026, the B.A.A. Youth Mile extends the action on Boylston Street through the afternoon. Nearly 1,000 young runners ages 7–14 take part in a free race, crossing the 2026 Boston Marathon finish line and earning a finisher medal.
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