State of the BQ 2026

The cutoff is the real standard

Hitting your qualifying time earns you the right to apply, not a bib. The field is capped at 30,000 runners, and only about 23,000 of those spots go to qualifiers. The rest are reserved for invited athletes, charity runners, and sponsors. When qualifier applications exceed the available spots, the B.A.A. accepts runners in order of how far under the standard they ran, and everyone else goes home. The trend is the story. In 2022 and 2023, everyone who hit the standard got in. Then applications jumped by roughly ten thousand and never came back down.

• 2026: 33,267 qualifier applications, 24,362 accepted, cutoff 4:34 under the standard.
• 2025: a record 36,393 applications, more than 12,000 turned away, cutoff 6:51 (also a record).
• 2024: 33,058 applications, 22,019 accepted, cutoff 5:29.
• 2023 and 2022: everyone who hit the standard got in; no cutoff.
• 2021: field limited to 20,000 for COVID; 23,824 applications, cutoff 7:47.
• For the 2027 race, registration week is September 14 to 18, 2026, and the new totals land in early October. We will update this post when they do.
• The practical takeaway: do not train for your standard. Train for your standard minus five minutes, and treat anything less as a lottery ticket.

The downhill index, in plain English

The B.A.A. found that runners of equal fitness run faster on steep point-to-point descents, so it now adjusts times from those courses before comparing them to the standard. The adjustment stacks with the cutoff. On a course with a ten-minute adjustment, in a year with a five-minute cutoff, you effectively need to run about fifteen minutes under the old standard. That changes the value proposition of the famous downhill races completely.

• Under 1,500 ft net downhill: no adjustment.
• 1,500 to 2,999 ft: 5 minutes added to your time.
• 3,000 to 5,999 ft: 10 minutes added.
• 6,000 ft or more: the time cannot be used to qualify.
• FindMyMarathon applied the new rules to recent editions of 24 affected races: 3,604 qualifiers would have become 2,097, a loss of 1,507.
• REVEL Mt. Charleston alone: 931 qualifiers (38.7% of the field) would have become 464 (19.3%).
• REVEL Big Bear: 607 qualifiers (33.2%) would have become 318 (17.4%).

What our course data shows

We checked the elevation profiles behind our marathon guides against the B.A.A. bands. Six of our roughly 100 guides sit in an adjustment band. Two caveats: our profiles are illustrative of each course’s character, not surveyed GPX tracks, so treat the exact figures as approximate. And the B.A.A. applies its own official measurements, which is what counts on race day. But the bands are wide and these six are not close calls.

• REVEL Big Bear Marathon: about 5,700 ft net drop, +10 minute adjustment.
• REVEL Mt. Charleston Marathon: about 5,200 ft, +10 minutes.
• REVEL Big Cottonwood Marathon: about 4,500 ft, +10 minutes.
• St. George Marathon: about 2,560 ft, +5 minutes.
• Colorado Marathon: about 2,500 ft, +5 minutes.
• Tunnel Light Marathon: about 1,700 ft, +5 minutes.
• Everything else in our guide set, including the classic fast courses like the California International Marathon and Chicago, carries no adjustment.

Course choice is only part of it

A fast course helps, but the data says it is not the deciding factor. Weather is the other lever, and it is the one most runners underweight. That is why every one of our guides includes historical race-day conditions: a flat course on a hot, humid morning can be slower than a hilly course on a cool, dry one. When you are choosing between two courses in the same adjustment band, pick the one with the better weather record.

• An analysis of Strava data found BQ rates of 32% at CIM and Valencia, 18% at Chicago and Berlin, and just 6% at New York and the Marine Corps Marathon.
• New York’s low number was heat; the Marine Corps’ was a beginner-heavy field.
• The same analysis found that negative splits predicted a BQ better than elevation did.

What to do about it

• Target five minutes under your standard, minimum. The last two cutoffs were 6:51 and 4:34. The standard is the entry fee; the buffer is the ticket.
• Prefer courses with no downhill adjustment in cool-weather months. October through December in the US is the sweet spot, and most of those races carry no penalty.
• If you love a downhill course, price it honestly. A 10-minute adjustment plus a typical cutoff means running about fifteen minutes under the posted standard. For some runners that is still the right trade. Just know the price before you register.
• Check the window. Times for the 2027 race count from September 2025 through registration week in mid-September 2026. Racing later in the fall? You are qualifying for 2028, under the same rules.
• Run the numbers for your age group with our Boston qualifier calculator, which applies the standard, the downhill band, and a cutoff buffer to your target race.

Methodology

Standards and the downhill bands were verified against the B.A.A.’s qualifying page in July 2026. Application totals and cutoff history are the B.A.A.’s announced figures, 2018 through 2024 as compiled by Canadian Running and 2025–2026 from B.A.A. registration updates. The course band table is computed from the elevation profiles behind our marathon guides, which are illustrative rather than surveyed; the B.A.A.’s official course measurements govern on race day. BQ-rate figures for the affected downhill races are FindMyMarathon’s analysis of recent editions, and the cross-race BQ comparison is Strava data as reported by Women’s Running.

• We will refresh this post every September with the new cutoff, standards, and course data.