2025 Boston Marathon sets records with historically hard cut-off time

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Check your jacket pockets. Two unclaimed winning Powerball tickets bought in Massachusetts last October are about to expire next week.

But first, let’s get to the news:

On your marks, get set, try again: Remember last week when Boston Marathon organizers reported a record 36,406 qualifier applications for the 2025 race? A third of those speedy runners won’t make the cut. The BAA said yesterday that a total of 24,069 applicants are being offered a bib — meaning 12,324 runners who submitted qualifying times will be denied.

• Zoom in: That’s the most qualifiers ever not accepted to the race, according to the BAA’s website — breaking last year’s record of 11,039. This year’s race also had a “cut-off time” of 6 minutes 51 seconds. That’s how much faster applicants needed to run under their age/gender group’s qualifying standards to get in. (For example, for men ages 18-34, the official time was 3 hours flat. But the cutoff made the actual threshold 2 hours, 53 minutes and 9 seconds — almost a six-and-a-half-minute mile pace.) With the exception of the 2021 marathon, when the field was limited to 20,000 runners, this year’s cut-off was the toughest since the concept was introduced in 2012.
• What they’re saying: Marathon organizers say the historically strict cut-off is a reflection of how popular running has become. “The sport of marathoning is reaching record levels from both a participation and speed standpoint,” BAA CEO Jack Fleming said. “Unfortunately, we’re unable to accept all athletes into the field.”
• What can you do if you didn’t make the cut? Get ready to fundraise. Roughly 6,000 of the 30,000 marathon bibs this year are reserved to charity programs, which begin accepting applications later this fall. The BAA encourages athletes interested in running for charity to contact the non-profit or organization directly for more information.
• What’s next: The BAA is lowering the 2026 Boston Marathon qualifying times for the first time since 2019 (and when factoring in expected cut-offs, the actual qualifying thresholds will again be even lower).

Catching up: This year’s MCAS scores are showing a slower recovery from pandemic-era learning loss than state officials had hoped. “We know there is much work to be done,” Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said of this past spring’s standardized test results, which were released yesterday.

• This year, scores on the English portion were down in every testing grade level, especially among younger learners. Roughly 39% of test takers in Grades 3 to 8 earned at least a passing score in 2024, compared to 42% in 2023 and 52% in 2019. Meanwhile, math scores remained virtually stagnant. Science scores were mixed, with some gains among fifth and tenth graders. (WBUR’s Carrie Jung has more details on the specific scores here.)
• Signs of progress? Just 3% of public schools were flagged this year for making “little to no progress” on their MCAS-based accountability goals. That’s down from 6% in 2023. Officials also said the state’s chronic absenteeism rate continues to recover.
• In related news: The scores came out just hours after a new WBUR poll found 51% support for this fall’s ballot question to get rid of MCAS as a high school graduation requirement — a fairly solid lead over the 34% who said they would vote “no.” However, pollsters say they expect the race to get tighter as November approaches. (Dive deeper into the debate over the MCAS requirement with this explainer from WBUR’s Suevon Lee.)

Get your shovels: The local homeless services organization St. Francis House broke ground yesterday on a 19-story affordable housing development, just a block from Boston Common.

• Zoom in: WBUR’s Lynn Jolicoeur reports the LaGrange Street tower will have 126 apartments, 70 of which will be permanent housing for people coming out of homelessness. The other mixed-income units will be rented via a lottery to households making less than 50%, 60% or 80% of the area median income. Get more details on the project and a rendering of the tower here.

William Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer and twin brother of the cop accused of murdering Sandra Birchmore, has been banned from working again in Massachusetts law enforcement. The state’s police oversight agency voted to decertify Farwell yesterday for what it described as “misconduct” with Birchmore. While he does not face charges in the murder case, a 2022 investigation found Farwell was one of three Stoughton cops who had sexual relationships with Birchmore while she was in a youth police program.

• Farwell’s brother, Matthew, is charged with murdering Birchmore in 2021 and making it look like a suicide after she allegedly told him she was pregnant. He has already been decertified.

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This article was originally published on WBUR.org.