The 130th Boston Marathon will take place on Monday as 30,000 athletes mark Patriots’ Day in America with one of the most iconic and traditional races in the running calendar.
Part of the seven-race Abbott World Marathon Majors, a prize pot of almost $1.5m is on offer across three divisions of professional competition – open, wheelchair, and para – while there is also a $50,000 bonus up for grabs should anyone break the course record.
With a course which follows a point-to-point route from rural Hopkinton to Boston, the current Men’s Open record is held by Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai, who ran 2:03:02 in 2011, while the Women’s Open record was set last year by another Kenyan, Sharon Lokedi (2:17:22).
And with a whole host of big-name runners lining up next week, there is every chance that new records could well be set as the race celebrates 13 decades of running history.
Here’s all you need to know about the race…
Start time and how to watch live
The action gets underway at 09:06 on Monday when the wheelchair men depart, closely followed by the wheelchair women at 09:09; the handcycles and duo teams will then set off at 09:30.
The professional men will start their race at 09:37, with the women then departing ten minutes later at 09:47.
Para-athletes start at 09:50, before there are then six waves of runners setting out on a course which spans eight cities and towns, including Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline and Boston.
The Boston Athletic Association says citizens from 137 countries and all 50 US states will be represented in this year’s event.
Audiences on the Pacific Coast are three hours behind the East Coast, so the pro men’s start will be 06:37, with the women’s at 06:47, while in Central America it will be 08:37 and 08:47.
Central European time will be 15:37 and 15:47, while the UK will be 14:37 and 14:47.
Boston-area viewers can enjoy exclusive live coverage of the Boston Marathon on WCVB Channel 5 (ABC), beginning at 04:00 on Monday, while a live stream is also available through the Very Local app.
It will also be simulcast regionally on WCVB Channel 5’s Hearst Television sister stations: WMUR News 9 ABC (Manchester, NH), WMTW Channel 8 ABC (Portland/Auburn, ME), and WPTZ NBC5 (Burlington, VT/Plattsburgh, NY).
ESPN2 will broadcast the race on its flagship channel from 09:00 local time until 12:30, which will be available across South America.
FloSports will show the action in Australia, SMG in China, Supersport in Africa, and Eurosport across India and Europe.
Men’s elite field
Last year’s winner, John Korir, took a tumble in the early stages of the race before going on to take a highly impressive victory in a time of 2:04:45.
The man, who also won in Chicago and Valencia last year, returns to Boston on Monday for what promises to be an epic battle with world champion Alphonce Simbu (TAN), fellow Kenyan Cybrian Kotut, and four-time Majors winner Benson Kipruto.
Kipruto – the first man to win all three of the US-based Abbott World Marathon Majors – took the tape in Boston back in 2021, before then winning at Chicago in 2022 and New York in 2025. He also won the Tokyo Marathon in 2024.
There are 16 athletes in the field who have bettered 2:06, while the 2016 Boston champion, Lemi Berhanu (ETH), returns to the scene of his famous win.
US hopes of a podium place suffered a huge blow when fan favourite Conner Mantz was forced to withdraw from the field, having failed to recover sufficiently from a stress fracture in his sacrum.
Mantz was fourth in the race last year and then broke the long-standing American record for the distance at the Chicago Marathon in October, where he ran 2:04:43 as he again filled fourth place.
Women’s elite field
Sharon Lokedi (KEN) set a new course record as she won in Boston last year and will be back to defend her title on Monday in what is a very strong field of international-class runners.
Lokedi also placed second at the New York Marathon last year and undoubtedly starts as the favourite. However, she will have some stiff competition from fellow Kenyans Vivian Cheruiyot and Irine Cheptai, as well as Ethiopians Workenesh Edesa and Bedatu Hirpa.
Indeed, there are 11 women on the Boston start line who have recorded a sub-2:20 marathon time, with Chiptai fourth in Boston (2:21:32) and Olympic gold medallist Cheruiyot impressing with a fifth place in London.
Edesa won the 2024 Sydney Marathon, and Hirpa won the Paris and Dubai marathons, while there is also another Kenyan, Mary Ngugu-Cooper, who has placed in the top ten five times at Boston.
US hopes rest on the shoulders of national record-holder Emily Sisson.
