Participants must be 18 years of age on the day of the race and must meet certain time standards to qualify for their age group.
Visually impaired runners are allowed to participate, but they must have a five hour qualifying time. There are also categories for wheelchairs and handcycles.
Runners come from all over the world to participate.
Records
Best Women’s Open time – 2:19:59 – Buzunesh Deba, Ethiopia – (2014)
Best Men’s Wheelchair time – Marcel Hug, Switzerland, 1:18:04 (2017)
Best Women’s Wheelchair time – Manuela Schar, Switzerland – 1:28:17 (2017)
Timeline
April 19, 1897 – The first marathon is run and is 24.8 miles. The winner is John J. McDermott of New York, with a time of 2:55:10. There are 18 entrants, 15 starters and 10 finishers.
1897-1968 – The race is run on April 19, Patriots’ Day, a holiday commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War only recognized in Massachusetts and Maine. In those years that April 19 falls on a Sunday, the race is held the next day, Monday the 20th.
April 19, 1924 – The race is lengthened to 26.2 miles to conform to Olympic standards.
April 17, 1967 – Kathrine Switzer becomes the first woman to receive a number to run in the Boston Marathon. She enters the race under the name K.V. Switzer and wears baggy clothes to disguise herself. Females are not officially allowed to enter until 1972.
1969 – Patriots’ Day is changed to the third Monday in April, so the date of the race is also changed..
1975 – A wheelchair division is added to the marathon. Bob Hall finishes the race in two hours and 58 minutes in a wheelchair.
April 15, 1996 – The 100th Boston Marathon is run. There are a record 35,868 finishers.
October 26, 2016 – Three-time winner Rita Jeptoo, of Kenya, loses her 2014 title and record for the fastest women’s finish ever (2:18:57), as part of a ruling on her two-year ban for doping.
