The Abbott World Marathon Majors have places for runners who achieve qualifying times. Those times vary with age and gender, with each race setting their own qualifying standards and deciding how many places are available to time qualifiers.
Here are all the details you need to know about how to run a qualifying time for the marathons in Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago and New York. And check this out if you want to know general details about getting into all of the Marathon Majors.
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TOKYO MARATHON
Tokyo is the hardest Major Marathon to achieve a place on the start line by running a qualifying time. They reserve just 25 places for men and 25 for women as part of the Tokyo Marathon Run As One idea for semi-elite overseas runners. Time qualifiers need to have run the following times, and entries are selected as fastest first.
Men’s Marathon: Under 2:28
Women’s Marathon: Under 3:09
For non-residents, the best chance of running the Tokyo Marathon is the lottery, a charity place or an international tour.
BOSTON MARATHON
The Boston Marathon is the race most famous for its time qualification. Aside from some charity places and international tours, all runners of the Boston Marathon have previously run a BQ, or Boston Qualifier.
For the 2025 Boston Marathon, the qualifying window began on 1 September 2023 and runs through 13 September 2024. Immediately after the 2025 window closed, Boston Marathon announced new qualifying times for 2026 (listed below).
The times are based on your age on the date of the race, not the age you were when you ran your time.
Achieving your BQ doesn’t guarantee you entry, but it does ensure that you’re able to submit an application. If the race is over-subscribed then it’s a fastest first system in each category. For 2024’s race, runners had to be more than five minutes faster than their BQ standard.
LONDON MARATHON
The London Marathon Good For Age system gives places for 3,000 men and 3,000 women, and uses a fastest first basis within each age category. These are only available for UK residents.
For the 2026 London Marathon, the window in which to run a qualifying time is 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
For London, the age is how old you were when you ran your time, not your age on race day.
Running a qualifying time does not guarantee you a place in the race. If you are within 5-10 minutes then you should also apply via the ballot.
There’s also London Marathon Championship Entry for faster runners. Times have to be run in the calendar year before the marathon (so to run London Marathon 2025, the qualifying window is 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. Runners have to be a member of a UK Athletics club. There will be 1,000 places available in 2026 and it’s fastest-first. Unsuccessful Championship entries move to GFA places.
London Marathon Championship Entry time are:
Men: sub 2:38 (or sub 1:11:30 half marathon)
Women: sub 3:10 (or sub 1:26 half marathon)
SYDNEY MARATHON
The Sydney Marathon became an Marathon Major for the 2025 running of the race. They have a High-Performance Program based on the below qualifying times. There are approximately 600 places (with a guaranteed allocation to Australian and New Zealand citizens), on a fastest-first basis.
• Under-40 Male: Sub 2:35• Under-40 Female: Sub 2:55• Under-40 Non-binary: Sub 2:55 (run in a non-binary division)• Over-40 Male: Sub 2:50• Over-40 Female: Sub 3:10• Over-40 Non-binary: Sub 3:10 (run in a non-binary division)
BERLIN MARATHON
The Berlin Marathon ‘fast runners’ entry has tough time qualifying standards but if you have achieved the time then there’s guaranteed entry into the race. The marathon time has to have been run within the previous three years.
CHICAGO MARATHON
Until 2025, guaranteed entry in the Chicago Marathon was possible by running a qualifying time that was typically around 10 minutes slower than required for Boston, but those times have changed and now Boston and Chicago are much closer to each other.
The times are based on your age on the date of the race, not the age you were when you ran your time.
Chicago also has a high performance programme for faster runners (2:25 for men and 2:45 for female/non-binary).
NEW YORK CITY MARATHON
Organised by New York Road Runners (NYRR), there’s a bias at the New York City Marathon to local runners and those who compete in other NYRR races.
NYRR offers non-complementary guaranteed entry to any athlete who meets the time qualifying standards at an in-person NYRR marathon or half marathon within the qualifying window. There are also limited entries for those who run a time qualifying standard at non-NYRR events, but only marathon times count (not half marathons). If oversubscribed, it’s a fastest-first system within each category. Times are net time, not gun time.
The times are based on your age on the date of the race, not the age you were when you ran your time.
For New York City Marathon 2025, the qualifying window is 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. The times in brackets below are half marathon times – these are only applicable to NYRR races.
Update: For the 2025 race, runners had to be more than 13 minutes faster than the qualifying time to get a place.
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One note on qualifying times: They must be run on a course verified by a local athletics governing body and proof must be submitted along with your application. In most cases, achieving the qualifying standard does not guarantee you entry. All successful time qualifiers still need to pay race entry fees.
If you want to learn more about how to get into all of the Marathon Majors, then we’ve covered everything in a separate post, including details on ballot entries, charity places and international tours.
