Getting into the 2025 Boston Marathon was more difficult than ever.
Runners had to be 6:51 faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender to secure a bib for the race, according to the Boston Athletic Association (BAA).
Race officials said 24,069 qualifiers were accepted, while 12,324 runners did not make the cutoff. That helps explain why the BAA announced on September 16 tighter qualifying standards going forward.
Boston hopefuls were bracing for a large cutoff, after the BAA also announced on September 16 there had been a record number of applicants for the 2025 race: 36,406 people ran a qualifying time and applied for entry. (That number of applicants was revised downward by 16 runners, to 36,393, with the official release.)
“The sport of marathoning is reaching record levels from both a participation and speed standpoint,” said Jack Fleming, the CEO of the BAA, in a statement. “Unfortunately, we’re unable to accept all athletes into the field, though we do want to recognize, thank, and applaud all whose goal was to be part of the 2025 event.”
While the overall field size remains steady at 30,000 runners, the number of spots allotted to qualifiers has increased—back to 80 percent of the field. Last year, qualifiers were disappointed that only 22,019 of them made it in to the 2024 race—which was 73.4 percent of the field. The remaining spots each year are reserved for sponsor entries, charity runners, and special invitations.
The 6:51 cutoff is the biggest in the race’s history, with the exception of the 2021 race, which was held in October with a reduced field size of 20,000 runners. That race had a cutoff of 7:47.
Boston started using a cutoff for the 2014 race. For the 2014 to 2019 races, the cutoff ranged from a low of 1:02 for the 2015 edition to a high of 4:52 for the 2019 race. In September 2018, the BAA announced it was tightening all qualifying standards by 5 minutes.
That adjustment of qualifying times momentarily quelled the rise in applicants. For the 2020 race (ultimately canceled by COVID), runners had to be 1:39 faster than their qualifying time.
After two years with no cutoff times—for the 2022 and 2023 races, when qualifying opportunities were rare amid the pandemic—demand again surged for spots on the starting line. In 2024, the cutoff time was 5:29, and more than 11,000 runners applied for entry but did not get in.
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!