The Boston Athletic Association has announced a change to its finish line procedures for the 2025 Boston Marathon, after controversy arose at the 2024 race. The change was posted to the BAA website on August 21.
Previously, runners had 6 hours from the time the final starter crossed the starting line in Hopkinton to get to the finish line in Boston and be counted among the official finishers. The problem was, runners out on the course couldn’t know what time the final starter crossed the starting line, so they also didn’t know when the 6-hour clock began and what time they had to beat. It was a moving target.
Under the new policy, entrants have until a fixed time—5:30 p.m.—to get to the marathon finish line on Boylston Street and still be counted as an official finishers.
In reality, this new policy gives runners only a few extra minutes to make it to the end of the race and be official in results. In 2024, the final person crossed the starting line at 11:28 a.m., so the cutoff time was 5:28 p.m.
But it will take the guesswork out of the official time for runners.
Official finishers have their names and places in the results, not just times, and with official results, they are eligible to be counted in the World Marathon Majors’ tallies for a six-star medal.
Several marathoners in 2024 detailed to Runner’s World and on social media how they had thought they were official finishers because that’s what they were told out on the course and at the finish line. Only later, when they checked results, did they discover that they weren’t official.
One runner, Cortney Blackburn, even picked up her six-star medal, because she thought she had completed the WMM challenge at Boston. When she looked at the results, she wasn’t official. She had missed by 37 seconds.
According to the BAA, 497 runners finished the 2024 race after the 5:28 p.m. cutoff time. They appeared in results with their names and times, but no places. Volunteers handed out medals until late in the evening.
Many of those who missed the cutoff time were coming from wave 4, the final wave of starters. Others who had started in earlier waves ran much slower than 6 hours, but were still counted among the official finishers.
In an email about the new procedure, a BAA spokesman wrote to Runner’s World, “We appreciate and have taken participant feedback into account as part of our planning for the 2025 race, and are focusing on better communicating our finish line closure timing. Participants can expect enhanced protocols and communications ahead of April’s race, including clarification and emphasis on the finish line closing at 5:30 p.m.”
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!