Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is about to get tougher. On Monday, the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced it will introduce time penalties for runners who qualify on net-downhill courses with significant elevation drops.
The B.A.A. said it will begin adjusting qualifying times from steep downhill marathons starting with registration for the 2027 Boston Marathon. The new policy targets races with at least 1,500 feet (450 metres) of net elevation loss, which, according to recent data, gives runners a substantial advantage.
Since 2022, the B.A.A. has found that runners of similar fitness levels tend to perform better on steep downhill courses compared to flatter or uphill routes. However, those same runners often struggle to maintain their advantage in Boston, where they are overtaken by competitors who ran the same qualifying times on a tougher course.
“This is about fairness,” said B.A.A. CEO Jack Fleming in a press release. “We’ve seen explosive growth in marathon popularity, and with Boston spots more coveted than ever, we need to make sure all qualifiers are on equal footing—literally.”
Here’s how the new rules work:
- Courses with 1,500–2,999 feet (450–900 metres) of net downhill will carry a +5:00 time penalty.
- Courses with 3,000–5,999 feet (900–1,800 metres) of net downhill will receive a +10:00 time penalty.
- Courses with a net downhill of 6,000 feet (1,800+ metres) or more will no longer be eligible for Boston Marathon qualifying at all.
These adjustments, referred to as “downhill indexing,” will be applied automatically once a runner submits a verified qualifying time. The rule will take effect with the 2027 Boston Marathon qualifying window, which opens Sept. 13, 2025.