Live Updates: The 2023 Boston Marathon

The historic Boston Marathon is one of the city’s favorite traditions. GBH News reporters will be along the course throughout the day. Follow our coverage below, or see more stories here.

POSTED 1:32 PM

Marathon runners are still racing the course, but Boston’s Patriots’ Day rain is putting a damper on the Red Sox. The game is delayed two innings into a home game against the Los Angeles Angels.

POSTED 1:17 PM

Twenty-seven Boston Marathon runners made history before the race even started this year: they registered for the race as nonbinary, which the Boston Athletic Association previously hadn’t allowed for the in-person race. In a field of nearly 30,000 runners, 27 are racing in the nonbinary category.

Americans Kae Ravichandran, Cal Calamia and Matthew Powers were the top three nonbinary finishers. Ravichandran crossed the finish line first with a time of 2:38:57.

POSTED 1:02 PM

The Boston Marathon couldn’t happen without hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. Ashley Cronin (right) of Brookline and Michelle Thach of the North End are both medical assistants at Beth Israel. They are volunteers on the blanket distribution squad and were prepping to cover incoming runners. They will handle hundreds of blankets today.

POSTED 12:20 PM

GBH’s Diego Lopez is in Cleveland Circle, where runners from the earlier waves are passing through near mile 22.

POSTED 12:10 PM

Hellen Obiri of Kenya is champion in the women’s division, crossing the finish line on Boylston Street with a time of 2:21:38. Ethiopian Amane Beriso crossed just behind her.

A group of the runners were clustered together for much of the race, until Obiri pulled away on Hereford Street.

POSTED 12:04 PM

With just minutes left to go in the women’s race, a pack of four marathoners — Ethiopian Amane Beriso, Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh, Kenyan Hellen Obiri and Israeli Lonah Salpeter — are clustered together. Their lead is growing over American Emma Bates, who’s dropped several seconds behind.

POSTED 11:45 AM

Kenya’s Evans Chebet has crossed the finish line to win the men’s division of the Boston Marathon, in a repeat win from 2022, with a time of 2:05:54. Tanzanian Gabriel Geay came in second, just ahead of Kenya’s Benson Kipruto

Eliud Kipchoge, considered by many the Greatest of All Time marathon runner, came in fourth.

GBH’s Esteban Bustillos saw Chebet power though to cross the finish line.

POSTED 11:38 AM

POSTED 11:27 AM

The elite men’s race looks have an unexpected upset in the making, as Eliud Kipchoge has fallen behind. Many said he could be the first runner to crack the elusive two-hour time in an official marathon. This year is his first time running the Boston Marathon.

POSTED 11:19 AM

Light rain over Boston has caused the Red Sox to push back the start of their game against the Los Angeles Angels.

POSTED 11:05 AM

The men and women’s professional races are heating up.

POSTED 11:02 AM

For many survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing 10 years ago, running has been a form of healing. That includes Robert Wheeler, who was a 23-year-old first-time competitor who had just crossed the marathon finish line in 2013 when the first bomb went off.

That traumatic day didn’t stop him from running, something that he found more solace in after the attacks. This year will be his ninth Boston Marathon. Trauma experts say it can help runners process difficult emotions, and it’s an activity many bombing survivors hve stuck to in the decade since the attacks. Survivors say running itself, and also returning to the course, has helped them heal.

Athletes, Wheeler said, tend to have “a fire” inside of them.

“And often enough, those with trauma have a little more,” he added. “Because unfortunately, trauma either tears you down, completely breaks you, or it can be a tool: you can use that fire to burn down the house, or you can use that fire to feed your soul and build yourself up and build that house within.”

Read: At the intersection of running and trauma, these marathoners find healing

POSTED 10:49 AM

American Susannah Scaroni has won the women’s wheelchair division with a time of 1:41:45. It’s her first time winning the Boston Marathon.

POSTED 10:20 AM

We have a winner! Switzerland’s Marcel Hug crossed the finish line on Boylston Street to win the men’s wheelchair division. His unofficial time 1:17:06 broke his own course record.

GBH’s Diego Lopez saw the wheelchair athletes in Cleveland Circle near mile 22.

POSTED 9:48 AM

The professional women have left Hopkinton.

POSTED 9:38 AM

The professional mens field has left the start line in Hopkinton.

All eyes are on Eliud Kipchoge, the 38-year-old who is often heralded as the Greatest of All Time in the marathon: He holds two Olympic gold medals in the event, four first-place finishes at the London Marathon, another four at the Berlin Marathon, a first-place finish in Tokyo and one more in Chicago.

Many say he may be able be the first runner to crack the elusive two-hour time in an official marathon. This year is his first timing running the Boston Marathon.

Mark Carroll, head coach of the Boston Athletic Association’s High Performance Team, believes we’re close to a sub-two-hour marathon occurring in an official setting.

“Can it be done? [Kipchoge’s] done it. He’s done it on a closed course with pacemakers. He’s shown that sub-two-hours is possible in a controlled setting,” he said. “But I think the day where we see a two-hour marathon in a world marathon major is probably not too far away.”

Read: What would it take to crack the elusive 2-hour marathon time on Boston’s course?

POSTED 9:05 AM

And they’re off! The 127th Boston Marathon is officially underway, as the men’s and women’s wheelchair divisions have just left Hopkinton.

POSTED 8:40 AM

Take a peak inside the Athlete’s Village in Hopkinton, where tens of thousands of runners are getting ready:

POSTED 8:17 AM

A decade after the Boston Marathon bombing, the city still grieves and survivors are still recovering.

“At the Boylston Street finish line, now there are four twisted spires of bronzed metal reaching skyward. They stand sentry in a moving memorial to those who lost their lives in an instant. A remembrance and a reminder of our pledge never to forget,” Callie Crossley writes.

“But some can’t forget — emotionally and mentally, time stopped for them. Many don’t show any signs of physical injury but carry invisible scars: the trauma they still live with.”

Read and listen: For survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing, every day is an anniversary

POSTED 7:50 AM

What does a person eat the night before running a marathon? Lots of runners like to carb load, while some, like Jeremie Dernott, chose pizza.

POSTED 7:37 AM

April in Boston can bring any type of weather, from heat to snow to freezing rain. Today’s conditions are damp and cool with morning temperatures in the 40s expected to get into the 50s with a chance of rain midday.

Here’s what runners will see as they take off from the finish line:

POSTED MONDAY 5:30 AM

You can watch the marathon at home by tuning into WCVB channel 5. Race coverage starts at 4 a.m. and goes through the evening. It will also air on ESPN from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Athletes leave Hopkinton in waves, starting around 9 a.m. and through 11 a.m., so there is plenty of action all day. The front runners are expected to cross the finish line around 11:45 a.m. and 12 p.m., respectively.

Read: More on the best places to watch the marathon.

POSTED MONDAY 5:00 AM

The 26.2-mile marathon route starts in Hopkinton and makes its way through suburbs, all the way to the finish line in Boston. Although it starts slightly downhill, the notorious hills around Newton make it one of the more difficult marathons for distance runners.

After crossing the starting line on East Main Street in Hopkinton, runners follow Route 135 as they traverse through Ashland, Framingham, Natick and Wellesley. There, the marathon follows Route 16 and Commonwealth Avenue through the hills of Newton and up Heartbreak Hill. It turns onto Chestnut Hill Avenue through Cleveland Circle and takes Beacon Street into Brookline, then through Kenmore Square. As they come into Back Bay down Commonwealth Avenue, runners take a right on Hereford Street and a left on Boylston Street, and finally cross the finish line in Copley Square.

Got more questions? Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Boston Marathon.

POSTED SUNDAY 4:30 PM

More than 100 golden retrivers came to Boston to honor Spencer, the official Boston Marathon dog, and Penny, who both died in February. Spencer was a therapy dog who was beloved for cheering runners on in recent years. The dogs greeted runners and visitors at the finish line, and gathered on Boston Common. Massachusetts Golden Meetups, which organized the event, donated a portion of proceeds from the sale of “Golden Strong” bandanas to canine cancer research.

POSTED SUNDAY 1:00 PM

The attacks on the marathon 10 years ago have become an indelible part of Boston history, and two permanent markers now stand at the blast sites. But the items that were once part of the temporary memorial, have, in fact, been largely forgotten — even though they’ve been preserved in perpetuity and are accessible to the general public.

A huge swath of the objects that used to make up the memorial have been kept at the Boston City Archives in West Roxbury, a low-slung, nondescript building located near a Home Depot by Boston’s southwestern border.

Here, stored in the archives’ cavernous records room, you can find almost all of the temporary memorial’s so-called flat objects, including drawings, cards, notes, flags, race bibs, police patches and whiteboards that bear greetings and condolences from Boston and much further away. Other, more unwieldy objects, including most of the running shoes emblazoned with messages that came to define the memorial, are stored offsite but can also be retrieved for public viewing.

Read: Boston’s original marathon bombing now lives in a West Roxbury archive

POSTED SUNDAY 11:20 AM

Each year, the night before the Boston Marathon, hundreds of cyclists meet at the race’s starting line in Hopkinton for an unofficial, unsanctioned event: a midnight ride along the marathon’s 26.2 mile route.

While people have been biking the Boston Marathon route for a long time, it became a more regular tradition after 2009, when a group of Boston University students decided to go for a ride.

“We knew we loved biking but hated running,” said Greg Hum, who was one of those bikers.

“We wanted a way to connect with this amazing Boston tradition but didn’t want to run it. So we decided to take our bikes on the train and bike the marathon home in the middle of the night.”

Read and listen: For crowds of cyclists, a ‘midnight ride’ before the Boston Marathon is an enduring tradition

SATURDAY 8:16 PM

Ten years ago today, on April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon bombings forever changed what the race meant to this city.

For the 10-year anniversary, hundreds of people gathered at the finish line this afternoon to honor those affected by the attack. The city also unveiled a new marker on Boylston Street.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the people she talked to before and after the ceremony spoke about what they lost that day — but they also focused on the future.

“Because that’s what we do here in Boston. This 10th anniversary is about what we lost, but it’s about what we gained together,” she said.

Read: Boston gathers to commemorate 10-year anniversary of marathon bombing

FRIDAY 12:30 PM

It’s almost time! GBH’s Liz Neisloss captured this scene of Boston marathon runner Bryant McArthur from Portland, Oregon taking a photo of fellow marathoner Erin Genova of North Redding, Mass at the Boston Marathon finish line. Genova says Monday’s race will be her 12th Boston Marathon and this will be number two for McArthur.

THURSDAY 1:30PM

The Boston Public Garden’s beloved Make Way for Ducklings statue are ready and dressed for the marathon.

THURSDAY 1:00 PM

A week before the 2023 Boston Marathon, GBH’s Morning Edition did a race of their own: a race against the T.

Host Jeremy Siegel joined two runners, both of whom are training to run the Boston Marathon, in separate attempts to beat the MBTA’s Green Line.

He wanted to see if he — a runner, but not a super fast one — could do it. He also wanted to put to the test whether right now, with all the slow zones in place while the T is inspecting and repairing lines, it could be more convenient to use your feet than your Charlie Card.

Read and listen: Spill the T — Can Boston Marathon runners beat the Green Line?