What You Need to Know About Registration for Boston Marathon 2018

The 122nd Boston Marathon will be held on Monday, 16 April 2018, Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is a highly competitive race where only the fastest runners in their gender group and age group will earn a slot.

The qualification window for the Boston Marathon 2018 began on Saturday, 17 September 2016 and will remain open until the conclusion of registration for the Boston Marathon 2018, which is around September 2017.

That means, if you participated in any qualifying race and met the qualifying time between 17 September 2017 to September 2018, you are eligible to apply for the Boston Marathon 2018. However, only the fastest qualifiers will be given an entry as space allows.

Qualifying Times

The following table shows the qualifying times for the Boston Marathon 2018.

The above timings are based on official submitted net time. Note that meeting the qualifying time doesn’t guarantee an entry, but simply an opportunity to submit an application.

Qualifying Races

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) accepts qualifying times from USATF or AIMS certified courses. Applicants must provide the name and date of the marathon at which they qualified, and their official finishing time. The B.A.A. will verify all qualifying times before granting acceptance into the race.

Some of the AIMS certified races that are close to home include Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, Standard Chartered KL Marathon, Kuching Marathon, Penang Bridge International Marathon, Maybank Bali Marathon, Gold Coast Airport Marathon, 7 Sunshine Coast Marathon, Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, and Laguna Phuket Marathon.

Online Registration

Registration will be held entirely online at www.baa.org. It comprises a few stages, beginning with the fastest qualifiers.

First week of registration:

• On Monday, 11 September 2017, registration will open for eligible runners who have met the qualifying standard for their age and gender by 20 minutes or more.
• If space remains, the registration will open on Wednesday, 13 September 2017, at 10 a.m. ET (or 10 p.m. GMT+8) for those who have met their qualifying standard by 10 minutes or more.
• If space remains, registration will open on Friday, 15 September 2017, at 10 a.m. ET (or 10 p.m. GMT+8) for those who have met their qualifying standard by five minutes or more.
• The first week of registration will close on Saturday, 16 September 2017, at 10 p.m. ET (or 10 a.m. the next day GMT+8).

Second week of registration:

• If space remains after the first week of registration, then registration will re-open for all qualifiers from Monday, 18 September 2017, at 10 a.m. ET (or 10 p.m. GMT+8) through Wednesday, 20 September 2017, at 5 p.m. ET (or 5 a.m. the next day GMT+8).
• All applications made from 11 to 20 September 2017 will not be first-come, first-served. The fastest qualifiers in each gender and age groups will be given an entry as space allows.

Third week of registration:

If space remains after this initial period, then on Monday, 25 September 2017, registration will re-open to anyone who meets the qualifying standards. Registration will remain open on a first-come, first-served basis until the maximum field size is reached.

Run for Charity

If you are unable to secure a bib through the online registration, there is another way to run the Boston Marathon, which is the Boston Marathon Official Charity Program. The B.A.A. provides race entries to select non-profit organizations.

In order to apply for the Official Charity Program, you need to contact the charities of your interest directly. The list of official charities is listed on the B.A.A. website. Each runner who runs for the official charities is required to raise a minimum of US$5,000.

Have you joined Boston Marathon before? Do you intend to join next year, or in the future?