FAQ

Corrals are assigned based on qualfiying time.

In order to exit the Village and enter the corrals in an efficient and orderly fashion, runners will leave the Athletes’ Village according to their assigned wave, bib number, and corral assignment, and will be directed down Grove Street to Main Street. NOTE: Your starting corral is printed beneath your runner's number on your bib. It can also be found on your Number Pick-up Card and Baggage Label. Please do not stop along the way.  

If you are in Wave 2 or Wave 3, you will spend less time waiting in the corrals, it won’t take as long to get to the start, and you will have more room to run when you cross the starting line than if you were toward the back of a single-wave race.

Because the fluid stations will have time to re-load after Wave 1 and Wave 2, you will have better access when you arrive at each station.

Timing will stop six hours after the last person crosses the starting line in Hopkinton. We expect that to be at about 10:50 a.m., meaning official timing will end at 4:50 p.m. The course will close at various intervals before that time. The course will re-open on a rolling basis, based on a 6-hour running pace, starting at 10:50 a.m. in Hopkinton.

The B.A.A. will broadcast every five kilometer split to its website and family and friends can track your progress by logging in and entering your name or bib number. The "face" of the Boston Marathon website will change on race day and the process on how to enter the search will be clear. The AT&T Athlete Alert program allows messages to be automatically delivered to any US mobile phone, a pager, or any email address.

Alerts will be broadcast when your runner crosses the starting line, reaches the 10K, half marathon and 30K marks, and from the finish line. Runners or their family and friends can register in three ways:

• Via text message or SMS, (after registering, you'll receive a text message confirming how to complete registration).
• Visiting the AT&T Athlete Alert Sign-Up page at the race website, www.baa.org, and sign up there. (This will be posted in March, 2013).
• Registering in person. Representatives will be available in the Bib Number Pick-up area at the John Hancock Sports & Fitness Expo, Friday, April 12, from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Saturday, April 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, April 14, from 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Only officially registered participants are allowed on the course. The course and finish area facilities close six hours after the last runner crosses the starting line. This will be at about 4:45 p.m. The Boston Marathon does not have a race walk division.

The Boston Marathon starting line is located in Hopkinton at the Doughboy statue on East Main Street (near Ash Street). The race finishes on Boylston Street in Boston, directly in front of the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston Street).

Because of the three-wave start, we will be timing and scoring by net time, the time from when you cross the starting line until you cross the finish line. This is a HUGE benefit for every runner. Prize money will be awarded by gun time, but the elite athletes are up front so their gun and net times are virtually the same. Age group awards are based on net time.

There are buses that will provide transportation back to Hopkinton State Park and South Street parking lot for participants (bibs must be presented). Buses will start making trips back to Hopkinton starting at 1pm and leave from the corner of Clarendon and Stuart St.

You must show your bib number to board the buses, no transportation is available for family or friends.