Running News Daily

2021 Boston Marathon set at 20,000 runners field size

The selection process will remain consistent with prior years: applications and qualifying times submitted next week will be verified and ranked based on the amount of time an athlete has run under their respective qualifying standard.

The qualifying window opened on Sept. 15, 2018. Any valid qualifying time run on or after that date may be used to submit a Marathon registration application.

The B.A.A. says that achieving a qualifying time does not guarantee acceptance into this year's race. Since 2014, some runners who have met their qualifying standard were unable to be part of the field due to the surge of interest in the race.

That year, nearly 2,000 runners were shut out because a cutoff time of 1 minute, 38 seconds faster than qualifying times was set to allow a cap of the field.

The number of runners who missed the cutoff time of 4:52 for the 2019 Marathon grew to 7,384, leading to the B.A.A. to make qualifying times 5 minutes faster.

Because of the coronavirus, the B.A.A. last March decided to move the 2020 edition from its normal Patriots Day slot to Sept. 14. On May 28 last year, the Hopkinton-to-Boston race was scrapped entirely for the first time and the 124th Marathon became a virtual event.

The race was last run in 2019, when the entry field was 30,234.

Registration for this year's race will begin next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Registration is not first-come, first-served and applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Eastern on Friday, April 23.

In prior years, registration was held over the course of two weeks, with the fastest qualifiers registering first. Due to the shorter timeline this year, all qualifiers may register at any point during the registration week window.

Anyone interested in running for a member of the Boston Marathon Official Charity Program may apply to a team beginning on Tuesday, April 20.

For the second year in a row, the B.A.A. is also hosting a virtual Boston Marathon. The event will take place over race weekend (Oct. 8-10), and will be open to the first 70,000 registrants.

Registration for the virtual race will open on Tuesday, March 30 at 10 a.m. Eastern through the B.A.A.’s Athletes’ Village. Applicants who are not accepted into the in-person Boston Marathon and want to run virtually will have the opportunity to register for the virtual event.