Early on “Marathon Monday” morning, April 15, the streets of Boston will close down to prepare the Boston Marathon, which typically sees around 30,000 runners and up to a million spectators on race day.
CBS Boston's WBZ-TV is honored to once again be the exclusive local broadcast partner of the Boston Marathon, providing live wire-to-wire coverage of this world-class race for over 35 years.
The BAA teamed up with Amazon and WBZ-TV for "Boston Marathon Live," which airs every night Sept. 7-13. The one-hour show will premiere at 8 p.m. EST on CBSBoston.com and re-air at midnight.
The BAA has a hard cap on the number of participants. So if more people qualify than they can accommodate, not everyone gets accepted. In this scenario, the BAA accepts only the fastest qualifiers in each age/gender group. That means it's possible to run a qualifying time and still not be accepted!
2019 BOSTON MARATHON: Men's Qualifying Standards and Accepted Times*
| Age Group | QUALIFYING STANDARD | QUALIFICATION TIMES ACCEPTED (faster than and including) |
|---|
| 18-34 | 3hrs 05min 00sec | 3hrs 00min 08sec |
| 35-39 | 3hrs 10min 00sec | 3hrs 05min 08sec |
| 40-44 | 3hrs 15min 00sec | 3hrs 10min 08sec |
| 45-49 | 3hrs 25min 00sec | 3hrs 20min 08sec |
For reference, qualifiers needed to be four minutes, 52 seconds or faster than their age group and gender for the 2019 Boston Marathon; three minutes, 23 seconds or faster for the 2018 Boston Marathon; two minutes, nine seconds or faster for the 2017 Boston Marathon; two minutes, 28 seconds or faster for the 2016
The race entry cost may be $20 for a community marathon, less than $100 for smaller marathons, and as high as $150 to $300 for big-city marathons.
Registrations are non-refundable, non-transferrable, and non-deferrable. The qualification window for the 125th Boston Marathon opened on Saturday, September 14, 2019, and will remain open through the registration process for the 2021 race. Registration dates for the 2021 Boston Marathon have not yet been announced.
Most marathoners will follow the average splits columns.
| Goal Time | Avg Min/Mile | Even Splits - 13.1 miles |
|---|
| 3:00:00 | 6:51 | 1:30 |
| 3:10:00 | 7:14 | 1:35 |
| 3:15:00 | 7:26 | 1:37 |
| 3:20:00 | 7:37 | 1:40 |
Fuel every 45-60 minutes during a long run, with around 30-60 grams of carbohydrate (120-140 calories) per hour (e.g. a large banana, white bread honey sandwich or energy gels), and don't forget to stay hydrated with plenty of fluids and electrolytes.
You can run a good marathon without logging 20-mile training runs. Most running experts agree that it's impossible to run a successful marathon without completing some long training runs first. In short, there is no definitive minimum distance that every runner must cover in training before running a marathon.
Despite the official change, some race directors still advise against and even prohibit the use of headphones and personal music devices during marathons and other races. This is to make the event safer for everyone.
Elite runners do not listen to music in races because they need to concentrate on their own bodies and hear their competitors, and some die-hard, old-school runners follow suit. Those runners - who prefer the sound of the crowd or their own breathing over, say, "Fergalicious" - cheered the headphone ban.
A: There are generally two reasons that headphones are not permitted during races. Safety and leveling the playing field. A runner that has earbuds in is less aware of their surroundings. Thus, runners who wear headphones are more susceptible to injury.
According to USATF (USA Track and Field), electronic devices are banned from “those competing in championships for awards, medals, or prize money.” While some races do ban the use of headphones, most racecourses and directors of larger races simply discourage the use of headphones during a half or full marathon.
Headphones aren't at all a bad choice either if you choose them for running. After all, they do also offer quite a bunch of benefits: Not everyone likes the feeling of having earbuds in their ears, as it can get quite uncomfortable.
If you find yourself running in the dark, in a busy city, or in some other environment where you need to be alert, it's good to exercise caution and go without your earbuds. Running without headphones will let you better hear approaching cars and people, and will help you avoid distractions.
Earbuds allow you to zone out, get the exercise over with, and get on with your day. Ignoring the fact that you're running is sometimes the only thing that makes the experience palatable—which is why it might surprise you to learn that ditching your headphones will be the best decision you'll ever make.
The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) has announced that the 125th Boston Marathon, traditionally held on the third Monday in April—Patriots' Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—will be postponed until at least the fall of 2021.
So is it possible to run one on a whim? For most runners, a marathon is not just 26.2 miles of physical endurance - it means months and months of arduous, painstaking preparation. Jedward are not the only figures said to have completed a marathon without preparation.
The first reason Boston is so unique is that it's a qualified race. In other words, in order to register for the race, you must have already run a marathon at a particular (relatively fast) pace. The Boston qualifying standard drives many people throughout their careers as a mark of achievement.
Since its inception in 1897 the Boston Marathon has never been canceled. It's never even been rescheduled until, at least initially, this year.
