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[ Wire ] · Dispatch · Jul 22

Boston Marathon 2027 lottery: 1,000 spots for missed cutoffs

The Boston Athletic Association is adding a random draw to the 2027 Boston Marathon. Qualifiers who beat the standard but fall outside the cutoff time will be entered into a lottery for approximately 1,000 additional spots. The change, called Boston Qualifier Selection, is the first time a random-draw element has ever touched Boston's qualifying-only field.

How does the new Boston Marathon lottery work?

The qualifying process stays the same up to the cutoff. After registration closes, the BAA ranks every applicant by how far under their age-group standard they ran, accepts the fastest first, and the slowest accepted time sets the cutoff. What is new for 2027: instead of being rejected outright, everyone who beat their standard but missed that cutoff is automatically entered into a random drawing for about 1,000 more bibs. No separate application is needed, and the draw ignores how far you missed by, so a runner one second short has the same shot as one a minute short.

Who is eligible for the random drawing?

Only runners who ran a legitimate BAA qualifying time for their age group and gender. The lottery is a second chance for qualifiers, not an open ballot like London or New York. Runners who never hit the standard do not enter the pool. The number of runners accepted through the normal cutoff stays consistent with recent years, so the roughly 1,000 lottery spots are additive on top of the usual field. The overall race remains capped near 30,000 official entrants.

Why did the BAA add a lottery?

Because the cutoff has been turning away thousands of runners who did everything right. For the 2026 race, the cutoff landed at a record 4 minutes 34 seconds under the standard, meaning a man aged 18 to 34 needed 2:50:26 rather than the published 2:55:00. That cutoff rejected 8,887 qualified applicants, runners who hit their BQ and still got nothing. You can see how much the line has moved year to year on the Boston cutoff tracker. BAA president and CEO Jack Fleming framed the new draw as "an element of hope" for those runners, a consistent way to reward more qualifiers each cycle.

When is 2027 Boston Marathon registration?

Qualifier registration for the 2027 Boston Marathon runs September 14 to 18, 2026, closing at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 18. Applying on day one does not help, since acceptance is ranked by qualifying margin, not application time, and now the random draw follows the cutoff either way. Confirm your standard first on the Boston Marathon page, and Boston ballot alerts send a reminder when the window opens and again before it closes so a valid BQ never expires unused.

Sources: Boston Athletic Association: qualify for the Boston Marathon, The Boston Globe: BAA adds random selection for 2027 Boston Marathon

Sources Boston Athletic Association Random selection details, ~1,000 spots, registration window and 8,887 rejected-qualifier figure from baa.org (accessed July 22, 2026); Jack Fleming quote and 2026 cutoff example from The Boston Globe (July 22, 2026)