Boston Marathon: no time cutoff for 2023

Boston Marathon qualifiers: rejoice! The Boston Marathon has announced that, for the second year in a row, there will be no time cutoff for qualification in 2023; all registrants with a qualifying time during the qualification window will be accepted.

?#Boston127 Update? We are proud to announce that all qualified athletes who submitted applications during the 2023 Boston Marathon registration window will be accepted into the 127th #BostonMarathon! ? Read the full release ➡️ https://t.co/k97JAevl0l pic.twitter.com/BchuwwZFSC

— Boston Marathon (@bostonmarathon) September 21, 2022

The pandemic effect

In 2022, for the first time since 2013, there was no cutoff, due to an increased field size and a pandemic-related scarcity of qualifying races. 2021, by contrast, saw the biggest cutoff in race history–registrants had to be at least seven minutes and 47 seconds faster than their age-group qualifying time to gain admittance to the race, and almost 10,000 runners were denied entry as a result. This was after qualifying times were lowered by five minutes ahead of the 2020 race (which was postponed until September that year, due to the pandemic), seven years after qualifying times had last been lowered, in 2013. Such was the apparently insatiable demand for entries into the storied marathon, which celebrates its 127th running in 2023.

In 2021, the field size was reduced from 30,000 to 20,000 runners–the smallest field size since the early 2000s–which led to the large cutoff time of 7:47.

In 2022, the race returned to its usual time slot on Patriot’s Day schedule (the third Monday in April) and a field size of 30,000.

Registrations are reportedly down more than 14 per cent this year (representing about 4,000 runners), which is consistent with registrations at road races across North America, Runners World reported.

The race’s 37-year sponsor, John Hancock, announced recently that its sponsorship would end with the 2023 event.