The BAA announced on Monday that the Boston Marathon will use six starting waves this year, up from four.
The Boston Athletic Association announced on Monday a new change to the Boston Marathon starting procedure. This year, the April 20 race will have six waves instead of the usual four.The organization said there will be fewer athletes in each wave—ranging from 3,200 to 7,100 runners—which will help improve logistics like bus loading to the start line in Hopkinton and enhancing the flow on the course.
The marathon first introduced a multi-wave system in 2006, when it went from one wave to two, but in recent years, Boston used four waves with 7,500 athletes each. The first wave started at 10 a.m., and the following waves would set off every 25 minutes. Now, the first wave will remain at 10 a.m., but the subsequent waves will start every 13 to 20 minutes, concluding with the sixth wave at 11:21 a.m.The overall field size for the 2026 will remain the same at 30,000 total participants, consisting of time qualifiers, charity runners, elite athletes, sponsor bibs, and others. The number of athletes per wave is determined by factors such as estimated pace and finishing time.Participants can find their wave assignments and bib numbers in their BAA Athletes’ Village portal.“The new six wave start system is aimed at enhancing the participant experience,” Lauren Proshan, the chief of operations and production at the BAA, said in a statement. “Working with crowd scientists and observing athlete density, this updated start procedure is geared towards creating a continuous flow at each point of the athlete journey on race morning—from gear check to bus loading, arriving in Athletes’ Village to crossing the start and covering the 26.2 miles.”Proshan added that she anticipates all participants to cross the starting line by 11:30 a.m. and that the 5:30 p.m. course cutoff time will still be in effect. Last year was the first time the BAA used the 5:30 p.m. benchmark, which replaced the previous rule that runners had 6 hours to finish from the time the final person crossed the start line. The old rule was criticized because it was difficult to know when the last runner started, but the new rule gave runners a clear target.Runners this year will take one of two paths to the start line: Corrals 1 through 4 will exit Athletes’ Village via Maple Street and Church Street, while Corrals 5 through 8 will take Grove Street and turn right onto Main Street to reach the start.2026 starting scheduleWheelchair Division — Men: 9:06 a.m. ETWheelchair Division — Women: 9:09 a.m. ETHandcycles/Duo Teams: 9:30 a.m. ETProfessional Men: 9:37 a.m. ETProfessional Women: 9:47 a.m. ETPara Athletics Division: 9:50 a.m. ETWave 1: 10:00 a.m. ETWave 2: 10:15 a.m. ETWave 3: 10:28 a.m. ETWave 4: 10:41 a.m. ETWave 5: 11:01 a.m. ETWave 6: 11:21 a.m. ET
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