Today is the most heralded marathon in the world – the 2023 Boston Marathon. This is the race that many runners aspire to run and have to run qualifying races to achieve a coveted entry (or they need to raise a lot of money for charity). So, how do you track and watch the 2023 Boston Marathon – particularly your favorite runners? Here you go!
How to Track and Watch the 2023 Boston Marathon
In a big first for the famed Boston Marathon, the Boston Marathon will take place among the fall colors of New England instead of in April. The 125th Boston Marathon was postponed this year from its normal Patriots’ Day in April to October due to issues with Covid protocols. So, today is the day for almost 20,000 runners that have been waiting a long time for this day! Here is how you can track your favorite Boston Marathon runners!
Also, it will be a special day for many runners and for Boston as it is the 10th anniversary of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings that took place. What a thrill it must be for Boston to see the runners continue to race their streets year after year from this terrible terrorist act.
How to Track the Boston Marathon Runners Today
Link: Boston Marathon
If you are a marathoner – or even if not – you likely are interested in following along with some of the runners in the Boston Marathon today. In fact, you may have family running it or running group friends and want to keep track of them along the way. I can tell you that it is a huge mental bump for runners to know that friends, family, and others are following their progress throughout the race!
Here is a run-down on the schedule of events for the Boston Marathon:
- 9:02 a.m. ET — Wheelchair Division – Men’s Start
- 9:05 a.m. ET — Wheelchair Division – Women’s Start
- 9:30 a.m. ET — Handcycle & Duo Participants Start
- 9:37 a.m. ET — Professional Men’s Start: Official Starter
- 9:47 a.m. ET — Professional Women’s Start
- 9:50 a.m. ET — Para Athletics Division Start: Official Starter: Christina Whelton, member of Boston’s renowned Brown family. It is customary for a member of the Brown family to start one of the races on Patriots’ Day.
- 10:00 a.m. ET — Wave 1
- 10:25 a.m ET – Wave 2
- 10:50 a.m. ET – Wave 3
- 11:15 a.m. ET – Wave 4
Tracking Runners in the Boston Marathon
The Boston Athletic Association has you covered when it comes to keeping an eye on either the elite runners or your friends and family that are running. They highly recommend you download the Boston Marathon app which will let you easily track your favorite runners. You can download it for iOS here and Android here.
You can also check right here on their webpage after the race kicks off (using the times above to get a sense of the tracking times – remember that the first checkpoint is at 5K and in 5K increments after that). On the page, if you scroll down, you can get access to the leaderboards for each of the 4 main categories of the marathon.
All eyes will be on marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge as he runs his first Boston Marathon. Should he attain a win in this race, he will have won all 6 of the World Marathon Majors. However, even if he breaks his own world record time in the marathon today – 2:01:09 set last year in Berlin – it will not count since the Boston Marathon course is a point-to-point course with a net negative elevation. But, he could break the Boston Marathon course record of 2:03:02.
Watching the Boston Marathon
If you are in New England, you can catch all the action on WCVB. If you are outside their area of coverage, you can catch in on the ESPN. They will broadcast it on their flagship channel from 8:30 a.m. ET until 1:00 p.m. ET. They will also be showing coverage within SportsCenter.
Weather for the Boston Marathon
Running a marathon in New England in April means you can face all kinds of weather! It has been very hot, very cold, very windy, and very rainy. For today, the weather forecast for the marathon is damp with a temperature of 52 degrees, a real feel of 47, and a shower and thunderstorm expected.
I know if this was me, I’m hoping for some rain to break the humidity but temperatures of 50s sound really good to me! Plus, with an overcast sky, that could keep it from having to much of a beating sun.
Bottom Line
While many thousands of people will be watching and tracking the world’s best in Eliud Kipchoge, it is important to remember that there are many other fantastic elite runners that will be running today as well. This includes many US runners so keep checking the leaderboard.
However, there are also almost 30,000 other runners that are going to be running out their dream of finishing the Boston Marathon so if you are in the area, head down to cheer them on! Otherwise, look for your friends/family on this tracking link.
And, GOOD LUCK to all the 2023 Boston Marathon runners!
