The Boston Marathon is April 20, 2015 – Patriots’ Day! There are tens of thousands of runners who are eagerly hoping that their names are on the final entrant list for this historic race. However, as in the last few years, it is not just qualifying and then getting around to sign up that will get you the marathon! Now, there is just a short window (10 days and then a reopening if the slots are not filled) and just qualifying is no longer enough. To ensure yourself a spot at the starting line, you may need to actually run several minutes faster than your qualification time for your age.
The Dates and Numbers of the Boston Marathon Registration
The big number that has just recently been announced is that there will be a field cap of 30,000 runners for the 2015 Boston Marathon. This is down from 36,000 last year, but that number had been inflated to allow the over 5,000 runners from 2013 who had crossed the half-marathon point but had been unable to finish due to the bombing. So, 30,000 is a fair number.
Breaking Down the Numbers
According to BAA’s stats for the 2014 marathon, only 2,900 runners were actually turned away because their time was not fast enough. The numbers also show that 4,400 runners beat their qualifying time by 20 minutes, 6,800 runners beat it by 10 minutes, and 5,800 beat it by 5 minutes. The second week of registration (which is open to all qualifiers) saw 5,400 runners accepted. The time to beat to gain a starting bib was 1 minute and 38 seconds faster than the qualifying time for age and gender.
Those numbers can be helpful towards determining your chances of getting into the 2015 Boston Marathon. Even though this year’s field is down by 6,000, that is almost exactly the amount of runners who were let in for not being able to finish the 2013 marathon before the race was stopped. So, the numbers may be quite similar for this year. If you have not yet qualified, you still have some time to get a qualifying time or to improve on the qualifying time you already have!
Registration Procedure
It is strange to think that, not to long ago, a marathoner could actually run a qualifying race as late as March and still run that year’s Boston Marathon! In fact, it was called the Last Chance Marathon.
Now, registration opens and closes in September – seven months before the Boston Marathon. This year’s registration procedure is the same as the last few years’ – a rolling registration that opens each day based on the amount of time the runner cleared the qualification time.
Facts
- Race Day – April 20, 2015
- Registration opens – September 8
- Race Fee – $175 for US residents, $225 for international residents (same as last year, which is nice)
- Qualification window for 2015 Boston – September 14, 2013 – registration closes
- Registration Application – BAA
- Field size – 30,000 runners
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For posts about travel for Boston, check out these hotel posts: Start Planning Your Boston Marathon Trip – SPG Edition, Start Planning Your Boston Marathon Trip – Hyatt Edition, Travel Boston Marathon. In the next couple of weeks, I will publish new posts about hotels and flights for the Boston Marathon. It is never too early to lock in your travel plans – in some cases, even if you are not in yet! 🙂
