There’ll Be 9,000 More Runners in Next Year’s Boston Marathon
The Boston Athletic Association confirmed Thursday it will allow 9,000 more runners to enter next year’s Marathon, bringing the total number of entrants to 36,000.
The increased field will make room for the 5,633 people who were stopped before they could reach the finish line in 2013, as well as others who have pledged to run the race as a gesture of resilience after the finish line bombing. The B.A.A. has said previously it would accommodate those runners who couldn’t finish in 2013, and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis had already announced that the BAA wanted to expand the field generally, but noted the B.A.A. would first have to consult with state agencies and the cities and towns through which the race is run.
“The B.A.A. is aware of the significantly increased interest in registering for the 2014 Boston Marathon,” B.A.A. Executive Director Tom Grilk says in a statement. “The rolling admission schedule will provide runners with the fastest qualifying times in their age and gender group the ability to have their entry accepted in an orderly and systematic manner. We understand many marathoners and qualifiers want to run Boston in 2014, and we appreciate the support and patience that the running community has demonstrated because of the bombings that occurred this past Spring.”
In recent years, the Boston Marathon has had a field of 27,000 runners, about 22,000 of whom qualified by running another marathon within a strict finishing time based on their age and gender. Though for its centennial in 1996, there were 38,708 entrants and 35,868 finishers.
