- Two entry windows are open right now: the Tokyo Marathon ballot closes August 28, 2026, and Boston registration week runs September 14 to 18, 2026.
- The World Marathon Majors grew to eight races in 2027, adding Cape Town as the first major on the African continent alongside Sydney, which joined in 2025.
- London has the toughest ballot odds, with 1.34 million applications for 2027, so treat it as a multi-year project and take qualifying time or charity entry seriously.
- For every major, charity entry is the guaranteed fallback if ballots and qualifiers don't work out, usually for a fundraising commitment of a few thousand dollars.
The eight majors at a glance
The Abbott World Marathon Majors used to be a tidy list of six: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York. Then Sydney joined as the seventh in 2025, and in 2027 Cape Town becomes the eighth, the first major on the African continent. Eight big-city marathons, eight bucket-list start lines.
For most runners, the hard part of a major isn't the training. It's getting in. Every one of these races runs on its own registration clock, and most of them open and close their entry windows months before race day. Miss the window and you wait a full year, no matter how fit you are. Here's the whole picture for the 2027 cycle.
One thing to clear up before you read the table too literally. The four fall majors, Sydney in August, Berlin in September, Chicago in October, and New York in November, still have their 2026 editions to run this year. Those fields are already set; the ballots for them closed last autumn and winter. So if you're reading this in the back half of 2026, the next edition you can actually enter is 2027, and for the fall races those windows haven't opened yet. Any date marked expected is our read of each race's usual timing until the organizer posts the official version.
What's open right now
Two windows are live as of mid-August 2026. If either race is on your list, this is a this-week decision, not a someday one.
The general-entry ballot for the March 7, 2027 Tokyo Marathon opened August 14 and closes August 28, 2026. It's a straight lottery, no qualifying time required, and the odds sit at roughly one in ten. This is the single deadline in this article you cannot afford to sleep on, because the next chance is a full year out. If you'd rather not leave it to luck, the charity route (which opened earlier in the summer) is the guaranteed back door, in exchange for a fundraising commitment.
Boston isn't a lottery, it's a reward you earn. You run a qualifying time first, then apply during Registration Week, September 14 to 18, 2026, for the April 19, 2027 race. Hitting your standard exactly usually isn't enough. The field fills from the fastest applicants down, so most years you need a cushion of several minutes under your number. For 2027 the BAA added two wrinkles worth knowing: a random draw among qualified applicants when the race is oversubscribed, and a time adjustment for steeply downhill courses. The takeaway is simple. Chase your BQ on an honest course, and beat the standard by more than you think you need to.
The lottery majors, and your real odds
Most of the majors are ballots at heart. You enter, you wait, you hope. But the odds vary wildly from race to race, and knowing the spread should change how many you apply to and how you plan your year around them.
London runs the most competitive ballot in the sport, full stop. The 2027 edition, a one-off two-day event on April 24 and 25, drew a record 1.34 million applications. That ballot has already closed. It opened the week after the 2026 race and shut on May 1, 2026, so if you missed it, your realistic next shot is the 2028 ballot. London traditionally opens the public ballot the week of race day, so watch for it around late April 2027. In the meantime, Good For Age qualifying times and official charity places are the guaranteed ways in, and given the ballot odds, they're worth taking seriously rather than treating as a fallback.
Berlin is the flattest, fastest course on this list, the site of world records, which is exactly why its lottery is such a long shot. The 2027 lottery is expected to open in early October 2026, right after this year's race, and close in mid-November. If you're chasing a personal best and the ballot doesn't fall your way, guaranteed entry through a charity or an official tour-operator package is the common workaround. Just weigh the cost against how much the flat course actually matters to your goal.
Chicago is nearly as flat as Berlin and runs its non-guaranteed drawing on a fall clock. Expect the 2027 application window to open in late October 2026, with results around December. Chicago rewards persistence: beyond the drawing, there are guaranteed lanes for time qualifiers, legacy finishers with five or more finishes in the last ten years, and charity runners. If you enter the drawing every year and keep a charity option in your back pocket, you'll get there.
New York is the hilliest major, five boroughs and a lot of bridges, but it's arguably the easiest of the big lotteries to eventually get into, because it gives you more than one door. The general drawing for 2027 is expected to open around February 2027. The surer path is the 9+1 program: run nine NYRR races and volunteer at one in a calendar year, and you're guaranteed entry the next. Time qualifiers and charity fundraising round out the options. If you live within striking distance of New York, the 9+1 is the plan that actually works.
The two newest majors: Sydney and Cape Town
The series grew by two in as many years, and both newcomers are worth building a trip around.
Sydney became the seventh major in 2025 and runs in late Australian winter, which lands in late August for northern-hemisphere runners. The 2026 race is on August 30. Its 2027 ballot hasn't opened yet; based on last year's timing, expect it around late September 2026. General entry is a random draw, with qualifying times, charity, and travel packages as the guaranteed paths. A harbor-and-bridge finish and a fresh spot on the majors list make it the most sought-after new race in the series.
Cape Town is the newest of all, the eighth major and the first in Africa, starting with its May 23, 2027 race. It recently moved from October to May, so if you're traveling from the north, plan a build that peaks in your spring. The 2027 general ballot already ran, from June 10 to 24, 2026, but you're not shut out: the Candidacy Club (a qualifying-time route), official charities, and tour operators are still open. A scenic, largely flat course under Table Mountain makes this an easy one to want on the medal rack.
How to actually plan your major
The mistake most runners make is treating the majors as one decision. They're eight separate clocks. The winning move is to enter the ballots you can't control early and often, while building your actual race around the one entry you can control.
If you can run a qualifying time, Boston is the surest path, because it doesn't hinge on luck. If you can't, apply to the lotteries with the best odds relative to your travel budget, and treat London as a multi-year project rather than a this-year plan. And don't dismiss the charity route. For almost every major it's the guaranteed override, usually for a fundraising commitment of a few thousand dollars, which for a genuine bucket-list race is a trade a lot of runners are glad they made.
Remember that the calendar cuts both ways. A ballot you win commits you to a training block eight or nine months out. Win London's ballot in July and you're pointed at a spring race; win Berlin's in November and you're training through the following summer. Enter with a rough sense of how each one would land in your year, so a lucky draw becomes an exciting problem instead of a stressful one.
Frequently asked
- 01Boston Marathon qualifying standards · Boston Athletic Association
- 02Abbott World Marathon Majors · Abbott World Marathon Majors