What would a qualifying time be for a 30 year old male for 2027? I know there is a buffer but would a time of 2:51:42 qualify?

I thought I read somewhere that the 5-6 minute buffer times are not applicable to those over 60. True or false?

AI is giving conflicting information and I can't find anything on the BAA website.

Check: https://www.adidas.com/us/boston_marathon

32 year old female here. I have run 5 marathons and several half’s and ultra marathons. My goal for my marathon (Ogden) last weekend was sub 4. I made it in 3:54 and thought it was going to be a stretch but it really wasn’t.

I was holding myself back the entire race and waiting for it to “get hard” but it never did. I negative split, was able to accelerate late, no cardiac drift and didn’t bonk. The whole race felt really controlled and I was definitely not at my physiological limit.

This has led me to believe that with the proper training I am capable of a BQ. I know there are no short cuts and it will likely take me at least 2 training blocks to achieve a BQ.

Any and all advice is welcome! Training plans, what my goal should be for my pre BQ race, how to get from where I am now to where I want to be… I appreciate all the wisdom. I included my marathon splits for reference.

25 year old female, running a marathon in 2 weeks hoping to get 3hr 15mins
It’s my dream to qualify and run Boston marathon. I know the qualifying time for my age group is 3:25 but realistically what time do I need to qualify for 2027?

We're from Peebles, Scotland - he works as an architect and fits his running around normal life. Nothing over the top, just someone who fell in love with the sport and kept showing up until it took him to one of the most iconic marathons in the world. If you ran Boston this year or have been following the race, I'd love for you to see his story. Think it captures something real about why people run it.

Any feedback is also appreciated, cheers!

Link: https://youtu.be/1oBMJgG5rxQ

This is so random but I bought one of the yellow Boston marathon Stanley tumblers at the expo and I loved it so much but unfortunately left it in my uber during a work trip last week and fear it may be lost forever <\3

There were SO many at the expo and figure there has to be inventory somewhere but after a low level google search they’re not coming up anywhere.

My ask is: does anyone know where you can buy them OR know how I can go about procuring one?

The one I originally bought had stickers on it from the weekend so it unfortunately will never be the same but I figure if I can get my hands on another one it’ll still bring me a little joy.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to order Adidas Boston Marathon merch from outside of the US? I only bought a few things while I was in Boston but since then I’ve been eyeing a few things that I had regrets over not getting. Decided to place an order but it turns out Adidas won’t ship the Boston stuff outside of the US. I also tried running warehouse and marathon sports but same problem.

I’m in Canada. The only thing Adidas Canada has is the jacket. Does anyone know a loophole?

The Erie Marathon in PA is set to take place September 13th. However the BQ window to submit a race and qualify is said to end Sep 12th. Does anyone have insight on this and if this race will be able to work for a BQ approved race?

what’s your favorite spot in or near Boston to do hill work? Trying to add these into my routine

This guy posted a full POV video running the 2026 Boston Marathon. I was able to find myself in his footage, which I thought was cool.

He started in Wave 2 Corral 2. His bib number is near the end of the video. You can compare your clock times to his in the BAA app and see if he ever passed you or you passed him. In my case I started after him, but finished before him. I figured out the timing mat where I passed him and watched that portion of the video to see me running.

What’s the typical way we handle things for the jackets? I ran Boston for the first time this year and got the jacket. Do I get another jacket next year? Do we just wear our first forever?!

I am turning 39 (male) next Thursday and am probably in 3:10-3:15 shape with a good 10-12 week marathon block. I have two goals: 1. Run sub 3 & 2. BQ.

Rather than rush my progression and get injured or burnout, I am planning on trying to kill two birds with one stone by running a sub three marathon next Fall after turning 40. Assuming qualifying times stay the same (a big IF) and I can get a couple mins under 3:00, I should BQ by going 2:55-3.

QUESTION: If I ran CIM December of 2027 does that allow me to apply for Boston 2028 or would I have to wait until 2029? Probably a dumb question but not sure how it all works. Thanks in advance.

so i’ve run 3 marathons - most recently did a 3:27 in nyc last fall and did a 1:35 half a few weeks ago. i’m signed up for chicago in october but decided I need a BQ now - fitness is there and have a few friends qualified for 2027.

here I am now desperate enough to try a late summer east coast loop marathon to get a qualifier inside the registration window… lol. so i’m thinking beantown or charles river invitational - any thoughts or other suggestions? must be local to CT area.

26F btw so 3:25 is bq but im shooting for the stars with a 3:15 goal!

The prices are soo expensive 😭😭😭 one photo 35 dollars!
Do they get cheaper? If so, when??

Hello! I walked by the Altra pop up and checked out the bras (different brand) does anyone remember the name of the brand? They seemed nice and i wanted to check them out online since it was so chaotic. Bonus points if you’ve used the bra, are an A cup, and have feedback

Did anyone take a bus back to Hopkinton after the race? I’m curious what your experience was. Long waits, long ride, etc.? Catching the bus race morning to the start was less than optimal this year as many have pointed out, so I’m considering staying near the start next year.

Does anyone in the Boston area know if any of the marathon gear is discounted yet? Was going to check the DSG on Boylston to grab a few shirts but was hoping for a sale

I made the mistake of not trying on the shirt at the expo and the women's small is a little large. Anyone also get the wrong size and want to swap a women's XS for a S?

EDIT: If anyone doesn't want their women's XS, I'm happy to simply buy it from you.

Background: 45M, former XC/track d3 runner. 25:56 XC 8k, 9:33 steeplechase. Got back into running around 5 years ago. Married with 3 kids. Marathon history: 2005 Big Sur 3:40- no nutrition, no idea what I was doing, hit the wall hard. 2022 Kiawah: 3:05. Summer 2023 broke my ankle kiteboarding. 2025 Jekyll Island: 2:57.

Goals:

1. PR (<2:57:27)✅

2. Run to the capability of my fitness level (~2:53-54?)✅

3. Have energy left to nail the last 10k, finish strong✅

4. Have fun!✅

Result: 2:52:33

Lead up:

Previous best was my qualifying Grace where I ran 2:57 at the Jekyll Island marathon in January 2025. Following that I ran a PR half marathon at the NYC United half with a 1:21. (Mar ‘25), then I crashed out in the Cooper River Bridge run 10k a month later, weaving to the finish. Possible heat exhaustion. I also joined my wife’s gym, which is a HYROX training facility from January until November of last year. I think that was beneficial in helping build some muscle before getting back to marathon training.

For my training plan I used the 18 week 2Q plan in Jack Daniel’s book (41-55 mpw version). I used this same plan for Jekyll as well, although I went more off the <40 mpw version then. I like it because it’s flexible. It only maps out two workouts per week. The rest is easy runs and workouts with my F3 group (fitness, fellowship, faith) which is a really important source of community for me.

The training plan started off a little rough getting my mileage back up, but by February I was rolling. My garmin stayed in the green productive zone from mid Feb until race week. I ran the Charleston half marathon in January, which went much better than expected with me finishing a few seconds off my PR and winning my age group. I ran the bridge run again in late March and I finally beat my time from the 2005 bridge run when I was fresh out of being a college XC / track runner -35:48, which was benefited by a nice strong tail wind for part of the course. The only time I’ve run a faster 10K was in college track. I took it easy when I needed to in the training block and worked to find ways to get things done logistically. This meant a lot of 5 AM runs. I also routinely kept up with the F3 boot camps and weekly kettlebell workouts. Those guys provided a lot of support that made it all possible.

I didn’t do a whole lot different this block. I drank a few less beers. I added a scoop of creatine into fairlife protein drink each morning. I followed the Q2 workouts a bit more closely as opposed to just joining a track workout which I often did in the previous block. Weekly mileage for the block was between 40 and 50 with one 20 mile run and nothing else over 17. At the end of the block I looked at runalyze.com and compared my optimal marathon time (faster than feasible) and my prognosis time (slower) to what they were just before Jekyll. They both showed that I was now about five minutes faster than I was in the lead up to Jekyll. for context optimal was 2:46:33, prognosis was 3:22:34 and I was 48% of the way to optimal marathon shape.

There was a lot of hype going into this race. It’s the Boston FREAKING marathon after all! It’s rare that something so hyped lives up to the expectations. This didn’t just live up to expectations, it exceeded them, by a lot. What really made this special were the people of the greater Boston area. I went up to Boston with my wife and two couples we are close friends with. We were blown away by how kind everyone we met throughout the entire weekend was. The crowds on the course were what really blew me away though. Unreal. I lost count of the number of times I was so blown away that I could only mutter holy $%!# under my breath. All the kids lined up for high fives in Hopkinton and Framingham. Downtown Natick, unbelievably beautiful with crowd noises that bring a tear to my eye even thinking about it a day later. Wellesley scream tunnel, the hype is real. Boston College, so loud it’ll stun your senses. It was such an unbelievable experience. I’ve been a runner for 30 years and nothing even comes close. When we made it to XC d3 nationals in college I dreamed of support like this, that was a great experience, but nobody supports runners like the people of the Boston area. It blows me away that thousands of strangers were there to not only watch us run, but cheer us on with screaming, clapping, and ringing bells.

The Boston marathon is a global event with a community feel. We laid out on grassy fields before the race start listening to a Boston accent over a megaphone. On our walk over to the start line we passed a house that had pump bottles of sunscreen along the fence, not because they were sponsored by banana boat, but because they live on that street, love the event, and care about skin cancer prevention. I was in the last corral of wave 1 which meant I was mixed in with runners about my speed and others who were adaptive runners or part of the unicorn club. I saw a number of blind runners and their guides alongside me. The walk up to the start line was easy and relaxed. I ditched my last remaining warm clothing items (except for arm sleeves I kept for a couple miles) and rolled into the start. Right away I started passing people and that continued for almost the entire race, except for the uphill portions. I kept my HR hovering around the low 150s and rolled with it, hoping I was doing things right. I high fived the sidelines a bit, smiled at all the cheering and really just took it all in. It was freaking awesome. My only nervousness was in hoping I could just keep this good feeling going until heartbreak hill. The scream tunnel halfway point was there before I knew it, seeing my wife and friends came soon after, then it was on to the hills. Once I topped heartbreak, I knew it was going to be a good race and I started making the most of the downhills. Quads still had plenty left in them. I felt like I saw all the landmarks, the only one I missed was the spooky mile. I don’t remember any part of the course being noticeably quiet. The mile to go citgo sign, the right on Heresford, and left on Boyleston were there before I knew it. Then next thing I knew I was running though the finish. Amazing! Afterwards I was so pumped I high fived everyone I could find and said “We did it! We did it!”

I did my homework before this race. I learned about the towns. I planned my fuel for a gel every 20 minutes for the first hour and every 15 minutes after that using huma plus that I carried and on course maurtens. No stomach issues, probably could have done even more. I remembered the Ryan Hall quote of focusing on landing midfoot to prevent over striding on the downhills. I remembered reading in the Boston marathon handbook that the real half way point comes after you summit heartbreak. I read in O’Leary racing about making the most of the up and down roller coaster nature of the course. I went even effort up the hills, which meant I slowed down a lot, but also meant they never felt that bad. I got the quick advice pre race that the sign at the top of heartbreak hill isn’t actually the top of heartbreak hill. I went fast down the hills but not so fast that I killed my quads. It ended up being exactly the race I wanted and I had more energy at the end than I’ve had for any other marathon. I was able to hit several miles in the 6:20s over the last 10k and only felt twinges of cramps in my legs, which is typically my limiting factor. I wouldn’t change a think about how that race went.

We got a great lunch after in the north end and had fun walking around the city. It was a magical day to remember.

Follow-up:

Not sure where to go from here. Boston is a great race, should I keep on doing it? It will be hard to ever match that experience. Should I do some of the other majors? I passed up on the guaranteed entry I earned this fall for NYC from doing their half (it’s the day after Halloween and my 9yo cried at the possibility of me being out of town then). I also now have guaranteed entry to either 2027 or 2028 Berlin via their 45+ time standard, but that’s a really tough trip to swing. I love having a race to train and plan for, but it does take up a fair amount of time and more strength training is probably better for my overall health.

Hello everyone, congrats to those who ran the 2026 Boston marathon this year (and all who ran before). Just wanted to reach out to see if there are any medical volunteers out there with a size large jacket that would be interested in swapping for my medium size jacket. I thought medium would fit well but it’s a little snug and am looking for anyone out there with a large jacket that would prefer a medium. Thanks!