We share everything you need to know throughout the day. Stay tuned for live updates on elite men’s and women’s races, wheelchair races and top para athletes.
We will also be following all the storylines of the athletes participating in the course.
Click here to update. Read all of Globe’s marathon stories here.
2022 Boston Marathon start times
▪ 9:02 a.m.: wheelchair for men
▪ 9:05 am: wheelchair for women
▪ 9:30 am: Handbikes and Duos
▪ 9:37 am: elite men
▪ 9:45 o clock: elite women
▪ 9:50 am: Para Athletics Divisions
▪ 10 am: wave 1
▪ 10:25 am: wave 2
▪ 10:50 am: wave 3
▪ 11:15 am: wave 4
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The men’s wheelchair racers have from — 9:02 am
The 2022 Boston Marathon is underway!
Meet the Marathon Marshals: The Boston Pride – 8:45am
By Matt Pepin
Two members of the Boston Pride hockey team are the Grand Marshals of the marathon and brought the Premier Hockey Federation’s top prize, the Isobel Cup, to the starting area in Hopkinton.
Team captain Jillian Dempsey and player Mary Parker are both from Massachusetts. They drive ahead of the race and are joined at the finish area by their Pride teammates.
The Pride won its second straight PHF championship in March.
“It’s great to bring a trophy back to Boston,” Dempsey said in an interview with WBZ. “That’s always the goal every season.”
Meet the Wheelchair Users – 8:35am
Marcel Hug, the Swiss Dynamo who has won five Boston Marathons – including 2021 – has retired from men’s wheelchair racing due to medical reasons, according to the BAA.
American Daniel Romanchuk, a two-time winner, could be the favorite now.
Switzerland’s Manuela Schär is the defending women’s champion and will once again fight for a crown.
The men’s wheelchair race starts at 9:02 am. The women’s wheelchair race starts at 9:05 am
“The Hoyts will forever be a part of this race” – 8:25 a.m
By Matt Pepin
Team Hoyt, which runs in memory of its founder Dick Hoyt, who famously pushed his son Rick in a wheelchair at more than 30 Boston Marathons, has 22 runners on its charity team in 2022.
Russ Hoyt, Dick’s son, said in a pre-race interview on WBZ that the family’s commitment to the Boston Marathon, even without Dick, who passed away in March 2021, and Rick, who announced his retirement from the Boston Marathon in October, remains strong from 2021. Rick has cerebral palsy and said last year he could no longer compete.
“The Hoyts will always be a part of this race,” said Russ.
Russ Hoyt’s sons, Troy and Ryan, will be part of the Team Hoyt contingent. Troy is running his second Boston Marathon and Ryan his first.
They were known as “bandit runners”. But there is little room for them these days. – 8:20 a.m
By Hayden Bird
For years, for better or for worse, banditry in Boston was a tradition. For many it was an opportunity to add an unconventional touch to a formal event.
“I remember seeing a guy in a Godzilla costume,” one person said. “And I think he may have dribbled a basketball.”
Bandits were nominally discouraged from attending, although prior to 1996 there was never a major attempt to keep them out.
“It was an evolution, like everything else,” Jack Fleming, the BAA’s chief operating officer, said in an interview in 2021. “Looking back at history, 1996 might have been the first year that we actually proactively appealed.” .”
Read more here.
The Race Spotter’s Job – 8:00 am
By Nate Weitzer
In Hopkinton, after their 8am briefing, the race observers prepare to go.
The spotters will primarily be following the progress of the elite runners at the front of the pack, updating the media and race directors on the gap between the racers.
The Race Spotters at Hopkinton.Nate Weitzer
Mike, from Westborough, has volunteered at the start line since 2007 after running the marathon for the past five years. While crowds are smaller than in 2019, he says, operational logistics are pretty much back to normal.
Mike says he believes he has another marathon left in him and will try to qualify in the years to come.
Every qualified runner who applied took part in the marathon. That’s how it happened. – 7:55 a.m
By Alex Spier
While Boston Marathon runners have had to meet a qualifying standard for more than half a century, for the past decade even those who achieved that high bar have not been guaranteed a place in the field. In 2012, and again every year from 2014-21, the Boston Athletic Association rejected thousands of marathoners who completed a 26.2-mile race in official qualifying time to maintain what was considered a manageable field size.
In 2021, with the marathon’s field reduced to 20,000 due to the pandemic, a record 9,215 qualified runners were turned away. Only those who beat their demographic group’s qualifying time by at least 7 minutes and 47 seconds were allowed to run.
Yi Zhang assumed she had little or no chance of running the 2022 Boston Marathon. She asked if she should bother to apply.
But with encouragement from COO Jack Fleming, she did, and in mid-November the BAA shared news that delighted Zhang and others who doubted her qualifying times would be enough for admission. For the first time since 2013, there would be no cut-off time. Any competitor who had run a qualifying time at another marathon was accepted to run in Boston.
“How happy am I?” Zhang marveled.
Read the rest of the story here.
You might see a famous face along the way – 7:40am
In the crowd of 30,000 participants in the marathon, it will be difficult to see a face. But if you search hard enough, you can spy a few famous faces along the 26.2-mile circuit.
Here’s a rundown of the celebrities and personalities who will be running.
Bomb Survivor Adrianne Haslet Returns to Run with Shalane Flanagan – 7:35am
By Khari Thompson
Adrianne Haslet’s long journey back to the Boston Marathon is almost over. When she starts the race on Monday she will have her friend and inspiration by her side.
Haslet, who lost a leg in the 2013 bombings, will return to the legendary race as a para-athlete for the first time in four years, with Olympian Shalane Flanagan as support runner.
Read more here.
A look from the beginning – 7:20 am
Six months after a quiet and infrequent run in October, the marathon’s start line is filled with tents, balloons, volunteers and runners early on Patriots Day.
A view from the front. Nate Weitzer
Andy Johnson of Providence has been running a start line booth for 25 years. He’s hoping for a big crowd at his first sale since 2019, but isn’t necessarily expecting the same crowds as his stand three years ago.
A Kayem Franks truck will be on site, the first food truck to line the starting line in a long time. The truck is typically sold in the Fenway area and offers breakfast items and coffee in addition to sausage and other lunch items.
Monday Marathon Prediction – 7:00 am
By David Epstein
You can find all sorts of statistics about the weather during the Boston Marathon – along the route there were temperatures over 90 degrees. It snowed, rained and it was windy. April is one of those months when almost any weather is possible.
The weather will be close to ideal when the race starts this morning and continues throughout the afternoon.
We start with a cold morning with frost inside. The strong April sun will push temperatures inland quickly into the mid fifties and on the coast into the low fifties in the afternoon.
Bright sunshine will grace the Hopkinton to Boston route for most of the day, although clouds will increase in the afternoon ahead of our next storm system.
Tailwind and headwind can be a factor during the marathon, but this year the wind will be light. A light sea breeze is expected in Boston in the afternoon but will not affect the race. I suppose runners don’t care too much about putting on sunscreen during the race, but spectators should definitely be aware that the sun will be as strong as August 24th and you can get pretty burnt regardless of the temperature .
Defending men’s wheelchair champion Marcel Hug retires – 6:40 p.m
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, the defending champion in the men’s wheelchair race, has retired.
Hug has won Boston five times.
Japan’s Sho Watanabe, who finished ninth last year, was also eliminated.
Concern about COVID-19 creeping in? – 6:25 a.m
By Mike Damiano and Kay Lazar
It’s a rare thing in the age of the pandemic: a weekend of citywide celebrations in Boston. It will also be a major test of where we are with COVID – and where we are going.
30,000 runners descend on the city for today’s Boston Marathon and spectators are expected to fill the stands and sidewalks along Boylston Street to cheer them on.
It’s been three years since there was a real marathon weekend. (Last October’s race was a scaled-down, COVID-aware affair.) It’s also the first time since the pandemic began that the city’s spring rituals are taking place with a majority of the population vaccinated.
But as the city emerges from darker days, there’s a hint of fear in the air. After a lull in COVID infections in the spring, case numbers and hospitalizations have risen in recent weeks, suggesting a modest resurgence of the coronavirus may have begun. In Boston, positivity rates on COVID tests have nearly tripled since early March.
So what’s next: a new crisis or just a new normal?
Read more here.
Start times for today’s races — 6:15 am
The race will again have more typical start times and will have the usual wave starts. In 2021, runners were released on a rolling basis based on bib numbers and qualifying times.
▪ 9:02 a.m.: wheelchair for men
▪ 9:05 am: wheelchair for women
▪ 9:30 am: Handbikes and Duos
▪ 9:37 am: elite men
▪ 9:45 o clock: elite women
▪ 9:50 am: Para Athletics Divisions
▪ 10 am: wave 1
▪ 10:25 am: wave 2
▪ 10:50 am: wave 3
▪ 11:15 am: wave 4
do you know someone who runs Click here to see when her wave takes off.
Good morning and happy marathon Monday! – 6:00 am
Hello and Happy Patriots Day!
We provide live updates from the finish line, the start line and everywhere in between.
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Katie McInerney can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @k8tmac.