Boston Marathon 2026: Korir's Course Record and 2027 Qualifying

John Korir shattered the course record in 2:01:52, Sharon Lokedi defended her title, and Jessica McClain ran the fastest time ever by an American woman at Boston. The race, Heartbreak Hill, and how qualifying for 2027 works.

By Miles Ashworth · 21 Apr 2026 · 4 min read · Australia edition

Sharon Lokedi and the lead women (l-r: Annie Frisbie 8th, Jess McLain 5th, Loice Chemnung 2nd, Mary Chelangat 4th, Sharon Lokedi 1st, Irine Cheptai 6th, Mary Ngugi-Cooper 3rd) near Walnut Street in Newton, just past Mile 19, 2026 Boston Marathon. Photo: ArnoldReinhold, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

Boston delivered one of the most dominant days in its history at the 130th running of the race on Monday 20 April 2026. Defending champion John Korir of Kenya broke the course record to win in 2:01:52, and Sharon Lokedi, also of Kenya, won the women's race in 2:18:51. Both successfully defended the titles they had won in 2025.

Korir's record run

Korir's time took 70 seconds off the course record of 2:03:02, set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011, and it is the third-fastest marathon ever run on American soil. He broke away in the Newton Hills, opened a lead of around 40 seconds and was so far clear by Kenmore Square, with a mile to go, that he had time to look back, stick out his tongue and spread his arms to the crowd.

"When they told me I had run the course record, that's when I started to be happy," he said. "I knew I would defend my title. But I didn't know I could run that fast."

The race behind him was fast too. Tanzania's Alphonce Simbu was second in 2:02:47 and Kenya's Benson Kipruto third in 2:02:50, so the first three all finished inside Mutai's old record. Ethiopia's Hailemaryam Kiros was fourth in 2:03:42 and Zouhair Talbi of the USA fifth in 2:03:45. Korir took home $150,000 for the win and a further $50,000 for the course record.

John Korir, Alphonce Felix Simbu and Zouhair Talbi lead the men near Walnut Street in Newton, just past Mile 19, 2026 Boston Marathon. Korir went on to win, Simbu finished second. Photo: ArnoldReinhold, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

The women's race

Lokedi ran a patient race, sitting in the lead pack through halfway before moving ahead around Mile 17 and pressing on up Heartbreak Hill. "I didn't know how fast I was going. I just wanted to run as fast as I could," she said. Loice Chemnung was second in 2:19:35 and Mary Ngugi-Cooper third in 2:20:07, completing a Kenyan clean sweep of the podium, with Mercy Chelangat fourth in 2:20:30.

In fifth, Jessica McClain ran 2:20:49, the fastest time ever recorded by an American woman at Boston.

The wheelchair races went to familiar names. Switzerland's Marcel Hug won the men's race for the ninth time in 1:16:06, 33 seconds outside his own course record, and Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women's race for the second time in 1:30:51.

The 130th edition was also marked by a new statue on the course honouring Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run Boston, and the first statue along the route to celebrate a woman.

The course

Boston runs point to point from Hopkinton through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline before finishing at Copley Square in downtown Boston. The course drops a net 459 feet over the full distance, but that number hides the race's real character. The Newton Hills begin at Mile 16 and build to Heartbreak Hill between Miles 20 and 21, an 88-foot climb that arrives exactly when runners are most depleted.

Because it is a point-to-point course with a net downhill and often a following wind, Boston times are not eligible for world or American record ratification, whatever happens on the day. That is why McClain's run counts as a course best for an American woman rather than a national record.

Entering the 2027 edition

Boston is famous for not taking entries first come, first served. Runners must first run a qualifying time, which scales by age and gender, from 2:55:00 for men aged 18 to 34 to 4:50:00 for men aged 80 and over, with the equivalent women's standards roughly 30 minutes slower at each band. When an age and gender group is oversubscribed, places go to whoever beat their standard by the widest margin, not to whoever registered earliest. For the 2026 race, runners needed to be 4 minutes 34 seconds inside their standard to get in, and 24,362 took part.

The qualifier registration window for the 2027 race was set for 14 to 18 September 2026, through the Boston Athletic Association's Athletes' Village system.