We’ll be sharing everything you need to know all day. Stay tuned for live updates on the elite men’s and women’s races, the wheelchair races, and the top para-athletes.
We’ll also follow all the storylines of the athletes taking to the course.
Click here to refresh. Read all the Globe’s Marathon stories here.
2022 Boston Marathon start times
▪ 9:02 a.m.: Men’s wheelchair
▪ 9:05 a.m.: Women’s wheelchair
▪ 9:30 a.m.: Handcycles and duos
▪ 9:37 a.m.: Elite men
▪ 9:45 a.m.: Elite women
▪ 9:50 a.m.: Para athletics divisions
▪ 10 a.m.: Wave 1
▪ 10:25 a.m.: Wave 2
▪ 10:50 a.m.: Wave 3
▪ 11:15 a.m.: Wave 4
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Women’s elite race update at the 5K mark — 10:05 a.m.
Des Linden, who won the 2018 Boston Marathon, moved to the lead.
The women have just passed 5K at 17:41. @des_linden may have decided that’s too slow, because she just moved to the front of the large pack.
— Boston Marathon Pro (@BostonMar_Pro) April 18, 2022
The first wave of racers is off! — 10:00 a.m.
Do you have a friend running the race? You can find out how to track their progress here.
Para-athletes are off, and the first wave begins soon — 9:55 a.m.
Adrianne Haslet, who lost her leg in the 2013 bombing, is running alongside Olympian Shalane Flanagan in the para-athlete field. Read more here.
Here’s a rundown of which bib numbers are in which wave.
CJ Albertson loses his lead — 9:53 a.m.
CJ Albertson, the men’s leader, has been passed in the third mile.
Albertson got out to a fast lead this year, the same way he did in 2021. He ultimately finished 10th last year.
Romanchuk leads at 15-mile mark — 9:50 a.m.
Daniel Romanchuk has gone out to a half-a-minute lead over Aaron Pike at the 15-mile mark in the men’s wheelchair race.
And the elite women’s race is underway — 9:45 a.m.
The crowd gives a loud round of applause to Molly Seidel, Desiree Linden, and New York Marathon winner Peres Jepchirchir as the race gets underway.
Defending champion Diana Kipyokei is not in the field.
Four women who’ve gone under 2 hours and 20 minutes are in the field: Jepchirchir (2:17:16), Joyciline Jepkosgei (2:17:43), Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw (2:17:58), and Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat (2:19:50).
The elite men’s race is underway — 9:37 a.m.
The men’s field features five men who’ve run under 2:04: Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese (2:02:48), the third-fastest ever, Kenya’s Evans Chebet (2:03:00), Lawrence Cherono (2:03:04), Sisay Lemma (2:03:06), and Ethiopia’s Kinde Atanaw (2:03:51).
The field also includes Benson Kipruto, the reigning champion.
The course record was set in 2011 in a time of 2:03:02.
The handcycles and duos are off — 9:30 a.m.
Next is the men’s and women’s elites.
Elite race preview: This is the fastest field in Boston Marathon history — 9:25 a.m.
By John Powers
The restoration of the marathon to its customary date has created stacked fields in both elite races. Olympians such as Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, the women’s gold medalist, and former Boston men’s champion Lawrence Cherono, who finished fourth at the Games, who couldn’t have made the short turnaround last fall, are here.
“I am grateful and feel honored to be in Boston,” said Jepchirchir, who won New York in November. “It would be a great thing for me if I were to win.”
And since the London Marathon again has been deferred until autumn, Boston was able to lure both of its defending champions, Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei and Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma.
“I was hoping to run Boston when I started my career because it is an iconic race, the oldest race,” said Jepkosgei, who won New York in 2019. “So I am happy to be here.”
Lemma has run here twice, with painful results; he DNFed in 2017 and was 30th in 2019. So he’s out for redemption.
“I want a good result,” Lemma said. “So I come for that now.”
The blue-ribbon additions have made for the fastest fields in race history, with four women who’ve gone under 2 hours and 20 minutes: Jepchirchir (2:17:16), Jepkosgei (2:17:43), Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw (2:17:58), and Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat (2:19:50).
“This year the field is so strong and so competitive,” said Kiplagat, who won here in 2017 and was runner-up in the last two races. “I am expecting the race to be fast but I am happy that my preparation was good. So I am ready for the challenge.”
The men’s field features five men who’ve run under 2:04: Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese (2:02:48), the third-fastest ever, Kenya’s Evans Chebet (2:03:00), Cherono (2:03:04), Lemma (2:03:06), and Ethiopia’s Kinde Atanaw (2:03:51).
Read more here.
Men’s wheelchair update at 10K — 9:22 a.m.
At the 10K mark in the men’s race, Daniel Romanchuk and Aaron Pike have broken away from the pack. Hiroki Nishida’s early lead was wiped out.
Scenes from Hopkinton — 9:16 a.m.
By Taylor Dolven
Hordes of runners gathered at the Athlete’s Village at Hopkinton Middle School around 9 a.m. Some stretched, some jogged off the pre-race jitters, others waited in long lines for port-a-potties or for photo ops in front of marathon signs.
Jeff McDonnell, 30, calmly read a book aptly titled “The Rise of Ultra Runners” away from the crowds. He was originally signed up to run in 2020 and postponed until this year.
He runs “mostly for fun,” he said. When he started running years ago, every running he ran into talked of Boston.
“Boston always comes up, it seemed like the most famous one,” he said.
He plans to ditch the book along with his sweatshirt in one of the bins for donated items just before the starting line.
Boston city councilor to run the course — 9:08 a.m.
By Christina Prignano
Outgoing Boston city councilor Lydia Edwards tweeted Monday that she’s lacing up her shoes to run the Marathon. Edwards, who was recently elected to serve in the State Senate, posted a photo of her bib number and included a link to donate to a scholarship fund for working mothers.
The women’s wheelchair race has begun — 9:05 a.m.
Switzerland’s Manuela Schär is the defending women’s champion.
It is 53.5 degrees at the start of the marathon.
The men’s wheelchair racers are off — 9:02 a.m.
The 2022 Boston Marathon is underway!
Meet the Marathon marshals: the Boston Pride — 8:45 a.m.
By Matt Pepin
Two members of the Boston Pride hockey team are the grand marshals of the marathon, and they brought the Premier Hockey Federation’s top prize, the Isobel Cup, with them to the start area in Hopkinton.
Team captain Jillian Dempsey and player Mary Parker are both from Massachusetts. They will ride ahead of the race and be joined by their Pride teammates at the finish area.
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 on WBZ. “That’s always the goal every season.”
Meet the wheelchair competitors — 8:35 a.m.
Marcel Hug, the Swiss dynamo who has won five Boston Marathons — including 2021 — has withdrawn from the men’s wheelchair race due to medical reasons, according to the BAA.
American Daniel Romanchuk, a two-time winner, might be the favorite now.
Switzerland’s Manuela Schär is the defending women’s champion, and will contend once again for a crown.
The men’s wheelchair race begins at 9:02 a.m. The women’s wheelchair race begins at 9:05 a.m.
‘The Hoyts will be part of this race forever’ — 8:25 a.m.
By Matt Pepin
Team Hoyt, running in memory of its founder, Dick Hoyt, who famously pushed his son, Rick, in a wheelchair for 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 remains strong even without Dick, who passed away in March of 2021, and Rick, who announced his retirement from the Boston Marathon in October of 2021. Rick has cerebral palsy and said last year he was no longer able to participate.
“The Hoyts will be a part of this race forever,” Russ said.
Russ Hoyt’s sons, Troy and Ryan, will be part of Team Hoyt’s contingent. Troy is running his second Boston Marathon, and Ryan his first.
They were known as ‘bandit runners.’ But there’s little place for them these days. — 8:20 a.m.
By Hayden Bird
For years, banditing in Boston was, for better or worse, a tradition. For many, it was a chance to bring an offbeat note to a formal event.
“I remember seeing a guy in a Godzilla costume,” one person said. “And I think he might have been dribbling a basketball.”
Bandits have been nominally discouraged from participating, though before 1996, there was never much of an attempt to keep them out.
“It’s been an evolution, like everything else,” said BAA chief operating officer Jack Fleming in a 2021 interview. “If I go back in history, maybe 1996 would’ve been the first year that we actually made an appeal, proactively.”
Read more here.
The job of the race spotter — 8:00 a.m.
By Nate Weitzer
In Hopkinton, race spotters are getting ready to deploy after their 8 a.m. briefing.
The spotters will mostly follow the progress of elite runners at the head of the pack, updating media and race officials on the gap between racers.
Mike from Westborough has been volunteering at the start line since 2007 after running the marathon the previous five years. While the crowds are smaller than in 2019, he says operations logistics are pretty much back to normal.
Mike says he thinks he has one more marathon left in him and he’ll look to qualify in the coming years.
Every qualified runner who applied got into the Marathon. Here’s how it happened. — 7:55 a.m.
By Alex Speier
While Boston Marathon runners have been required to meet a qualifying standard for more than a half-century, over the last decade even those who met that high bar haven’t been guaranteed a spot in the field. In 2012 and again in every year from 2014-21, in order to maintain what had been deemed a manageable field size, the Boston Athletic Association turned away thousands of marathoners who’d completed a 26.2-mile race in the official qualifying time.
In 2021, with the marathon’s field reduced to 20,000 because of the pandemic, a record 9,215 qualifying runners were turned away. Only those who’d beaten their demographic’s qualifying time by at least 7 minutes and 47 seconds were allowed to run.
Yi Zhang assumed there was little to no chance she’d get to run the 2022 Boston Marathon. She questioned whether she should bother applying.
But with encouragement from COO Jack Fleming, she did so, and in mid-November, the BAA shared news that thrilled Zhang and others who’d doubted that their qualifying times would be sufficient for admission. For the first time since 2013, there would be no cutoff time. Every applicant who’d run a qualifying time in another marathon was approved to run Boston.
“How lucky am I?” Zhang marveled.
Read the rest of the story here.
Maybe you’ll spot a famous face along the course — 7:40 a.m.
It will be hard to spot a face in the crowd of 30,000 participants at the Marathon. But if you search hard enough, you may spy a couple of famous faces along the 26.2-mile race course.
Here’s a rundown of the celebrities and notables who will be running.
Bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet returns to run with Shalane Flanagan — 7:35 a.m.
By Khari Thompson
Adrianne Haslet’s long road back to the Boston Marathon is nearly at its end. When she begins Monday’s race, she’ll have her friend and inspiration beside her.
Haslet, who lost a leg in the 2013 bombings, will return to the iconic race for the first time in four years as a para athlete, with Olympian Shalane Flanagan as her support runner.
Read more here.
A view from the start — 7:20 a.m.
Six months after a quiet and rare October running, the Marathon start line is filled with tents, balloons, volunteers, and runners early on Patriots Day.
Andy Johnson, of Providence, has been setting up a merchandise stand at the start line for 25 years. He’s hoping for a big crowd in his first time selling since 2019, but doesn’t necessarily expect the same amount of traffic his stand saw three years ago.
There is a Kayem Franks truck in the common, the first food truck in recent memory at the start line. The truck usually sells in the Fenway area, and is offering breakfast items and coffee in addition to sausages and other lunch items.
Monday’s Marathon forecast — 7:00 a.m.
By Dave Epstein
You can find all sorts of stats about the weather during the Boston Marathon — there’s been temperatures along the route over 90 degrees. It has snowed, rained, and been windy. April is one of those months where almost any kind of weather is possible.
The weather will be nearly ideal as the race gets underway this morning and as it continues throughout the afternoon.
We begin with a cold morning with frost over the interior. Quickly, the strong April sunshine will boost temperatures into the mid fifties inland and low 50s on the coast during the afternoon.
Brilliant sunshine will grace the route from Hopkinton to Boston for most of the day, although clouds will start to increase in the afternoon ahead of our next storm system.
Tailwinds and headwinds can be a factor during the marathon, but this year winds are going to be light. There is likely going to be a bit of a sea breeze in the afternoon in Boston, however it will be insignificant in terms of affecting the race. I don’t suppose that runners care too much about putting sunscreen on throughout the race but spectators should definitely be aware that the sun is equivalent to Aug. 24 strength, and regardless of temperature you can get quite burned.
Defending men’s wheelchair champ Marcel Hug withdraws — 6:40 a.m.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, the defending champion in the men’s wheelchair race, has withdrawn.
Hug has won Boston five times.
Japan’s Sho Watanabe, who finished ninth in the race last year, also pulled out.
Is COVID-19 concern creeping in? — 6:25 a.m.
By Mike Damiano and Kay Lazar
It is a rare thing in the pandemic age: a weekend of citywide celebrations in Boston. It will also be a big test of where we are — and where we’re going — with COVID.
Thirty thousand runners are converging on the city for today’s Boston Marathon, and spectators are expected to pack the bleachers and sidewalks along Boylston Street to cheer them on.
It has been three years since a proper Marathon weekend. (Last October’s race was a scaled-back, COVID-conscious affair.) It is also the first time since the pandemic began that the city’s springtime rituals will occur with a majority of the population vaccinated.
But as the city emerges from darker days, there is a hint of anxiety in the air. After a lull in COVID infections in the early spring, case counts and hospitalizations have risen in recent weeks, suggesting that a modest resurgence of the coronavirus may have begun. In Boston, positivity rates on COVID tests have nearly tripled since early March.
So, what comes next: a new crisis, or simply a new normal?
Read more here.
Start times for today’s races — 6:15 a.m.
The race is back to 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.: Men’s wheelchair
▪ 9:05 a.m.: Women’s wheelchair
▪ 9:30 a.m.: Handcycles and duos
▪ 9:37 a.m.: Elite men
▪ 9:45 a.m.: Elite women
▪ 9:50 a.m.: Para athletics divisions
▪ 10 a.m.: Wave 1
▪ 10:25 a.m.: Wave 2
▪ 10:50 a.m.: Wave 3
▪ 11:15 a.m.: Wave 4
Do you know someone running? Click here to see when their wave takes off.
Good morning, and happy Marathon Monday! — 6:00 a.m.
Hello, and happy Patriots Day!
We’ll be offering live updates from the finish line, the start line, and everywhere in between.
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Katie McInerney can be reached at katie.mcinerney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @k8tmac.