What’s the Best Race You Can Run to Qualify for the Boston Marathon?

When you're training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, everything matters. For some people, it's about finding the best courses for training that will give them an advantage for qualifying.

According to Boston.com, among the 25,170 qualifiers who were accepted for this year's 2025 Boston Marathon, the Chicago Marathon resulted in the most entrants: 2,407 earned their “BQ” (Boston qualifier) in Chicago in 2023.

The remainder of the top 10 includes the rest of the World Marathon Majors. London 2024 had 1,020 entrants (third), Berlin 2023 had 739 (fourth), New York had 581 (sixth), and Tokyo had 484 in 2024 (ninth).

The California International Marathon is a popular fall race, supported by mild Sacramento weather in December and a net downhill course. It's made its way into the top five with 688 entrants in this year's Boston Marathon.

Rounding out the top 10 is a new addition to the Boston qualifying field. The 2023 REVEL Big Bear Marathon contributed 425 qualifiers for this year's Boston Marathon field. Alternatively, the 2024 REVEL Mt. Charleston Marathon is next with 411 qualifiers.

The REVEL Race Series, which can be found in states like California, Nevada, and Utah, has been gaining attention in the amateur marathoning world. It's recently expanded to the East Coast, with a REVEL White Mountains debuting in Conway, New Hampshire, last year.

In 2025, the number of qualifiers from downhill races like REVEL rose to approximately 2,000, with 1,343 coming from REVEL races. That's nearly double the total from six years earlier.

Writing for Boston.com, Amin Touri noted, "When you look at the races with the highest percentage of finishers who achieve a BQ (and exclude races with qualifying times just to get in, like the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and BQ.2 marathons), downhill races like REVEL are prominent. Seven of the top 15 from 2024 had net downhill profiles of at least 2,000 feet."