Boston Marathon course guide: Hopkinton to Boylston Street

Boston Marathon 2027: date, start, entry

The 131st Boston Marathon is on Monday 19 April 2027, Patriots' Day. It starts in Hopkinton and finishes on Boylston Street near Copley Square. The race is a marathon only, with divisions for para and adaptive athletes.

Qualifier registration for 2027 ran from 14 to 18 September 2026 and will not reopen. It is not first come, first served: applicants are ranked by how far they beat their qualifying standard. For 2027, qualifiers who were 5 minutes 17 seconds or more under their standard were accepted, and a further group was chosen in a new random draw called the Boston Qualifier Selection.

The entry fee for accepted qualifiers is US$270. The rest of the field is made up of charity runners and invited athletes. Charities in the official charity programme take applications for the April race in the autumn.

Official website: www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon

Checked on 8 November 2026 against the official race website; confirm details there before you enter.

The course

The race passes through eight cities and towns: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline and Boston. The first six miles run downhill through Ashland and Framingham, and the course drops about 140 m from start to finish overall.

Just before halfway, students at Wellesley College line the road in the stretch known as the Scream Tunnel.

On our map the line covers about 42.7 km with roughly 219 m of climbing.

The Newton hills

The hardest part comes late. From about 16 miles (26 km), four hills rise through Newton. The last is Heartbreak Hill, just after mile 20 near Boston College, which climbs about 27 m over roughly 600 m. After that the course drops through Brookline into Boston.

What Boston is known for

Boston is held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday in April, which locals call Marathon Monday. Because the course drops from start to finish and the start is far from the finish, times run here do not count for world records.

Running it

• Hold back on the early downhill miles: they feel easy, but they tire your legs for the Newton hills.
• Plan your effort around the four hills between about 26 km and 34 km.
• Practise downhill running in training so your legs are ready for the drop into Boston.

Frame your Boston finish

The Boston Marathon is available as a framed 3D map: the real terrain of the city printed in relief, with the course raised in colour. Add your name, date and finish time and we work out your pace. If you ran with a GPS watch, upload your GPX and we print your exact line.