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☀️Mostly sunny and cool, with highs in the 50s. GBH Meteorologist Dave Epstein has a look at historical Marathon weather. Sunset is at 7:31 p.m.
There are 32,598 runners gathering at the Boston Marathon starting line in Hopkinton to embark on a 26.2-mile journey that takes months of training, thousands of volunteers and roughly 1,400 porta-potties. We have a few lesser-known stories you should watch for on the course this year. Ready? Set? Let’s go.
Four Things to Know
1. If you’d like to get into the commercial cannabis cultivation business today, you’ll have to wait. The state’s regulatory board voted to freeze all new licenses for businesses trying to grow cannabis for sale in Massachusetts because they say the market is too saturated, leading to falling prices.
There are 186 licenses for cultivators and micro-businesses in the state. An ounce of flower went for $114.25 in March, down from $401.43 at the end of 2020, according to data from the commission.
2. Vineyard Wind and their turbine supplier GE Renewables are in court, with Vineyard Wind trying to salvage the business relationship and GE trying to leave the contract at the end of April. The dispute dates back to 2024, when Vineyard Wind found defective blades. They calculated damages at $853 million, and have since withheld $300 million in payments to GE.
Now GE is trying to end their contract with Vineyard Wind over the withheld payments. “You can discuss and discuss and discuss until you’re blue in the face,” Judge Peter Krupp told GE’s attorneys. “At some point, you got to take some sort of action, right? And you took — you chose to take the action to terminate the contract rather than to go to arbitration.”
3. Despite a rainy weekend, parts of Massachusetts are still at increased risk for brush fires. Last Tuesday alone there were more than a dozen fires reported across the state.
“Snow really doesn’t absorb into those dead fuels [like trees and bushes] and so we’re seeing those fuels burn readily once we have this fire weather,” said Dave Celino, chief fire warden for the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. If you’re in a town that allows burning brush or starting campfires, take special caution to contain the blaze and put it out completely once you’re done.
4. Law enforcement officers from across the region — including local police, state troopers and federal agents — are lining the Boston Marathon route today. They don’t have “any specific or credible threats,” but are operating in a “heightened threat environment” because of global geopolitical tensions, FBI special agent Ted Docks said.
“We want everyone to enjoy themselves, but remind you that only properly credentialed runners and staff are allowed on the race route,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said. “Leave alcohol, marijuana, drones, and large bags at home, and if you see something that doesn’t seem right, say something. Call 911 or alert one of our officers who are along the route.
Your 2026 Boston Marathon Guide
Ready: Familiar foods. A bagel with peanut butter and a banana. A lucky porta-potty stall in Hopkinton that always has the shortest line. GBH’s Renuka Balakrishnan talked to marathoners about their routines, rituals and lucky habits. Some tips they shared: get everything ready the night before, turn your race day prep into a weekly ritual so it feels familiar by Marathon Monday and, if you can, take time to relax and breathe a bit of fresh air.
Northeastern University lecturer Grayson Kimball, who also works as a mental performance coach, gave a few more pieces of advice: “From day one, I really stress this idea of ‘think, feel, run.’ Identify what you’re thinking about because that’s going to affect how you feel and how you’re feeling is going to affect how your run is going. If that first half-mile just feels off, well that’s going to affect that next thought. … You still might finish your five-mile run, but mentally you are not engaged in what you were doing. So if you can teach them right off the bat: be in control and identify what you’re thinking about and how you feel, you can gain some control over your performance.”
Set: If you’re near the medical tent at the finish line, look out for Jon Dana and Chris Troyanos. They’ve been working there for 50 years, and this year is their last. “The very baseline [that] keeps me [coming] back is that Chris is one of my best friends,” Dana said. “He knows that if I’m at the race, he can count on me to take care of my area.”
Father Jeremy Paulin at the The St. Francis Chapel — inside the Prudential Center — holds a service for about 300 runners the day before the marathon. He said it’s often as busy as Christmas and Easter services. “We have a special blessing that we give for the runners,” Paulin said, “asking God to give them strength and courage and perseverance.”
And if you’re watching from home, you can catch the race on WCVB NewsCenter 5 or WCVB’s Very Local app.
Go! A few people to cheer for: Kortney Hixson, who is running today after donating a kidney to her mother. Her mom, Maribeth Finn, will be cheering her on from the sidelines. “I kind of had an incredible opportunity to donate to somebody who I love more than anything,” Hixson said. “Luckily for me, a few months after [the surgery], I started to slowly get back into my normal routine. After that, once I felt better and I was cleared, I just jumped back in, which is awesome.”
Brett Gordon is running his 25th Boston Marathon, joining a small group of people who have run the course over a quarter century. “I wasn’t really a runner,” he told GBH’s All Things Considered. “My sister-in-law had convinced me to run the Falmouth Road Race with her. And about a week before, she got injured. I ran anyway. I got to the end of the race, saw her and said, ‘Oh, that was so much fun. I want to do something like this again. I want to run a marathon!’ She sort of looked at me, laughed and said, ‘You could never.’ And gave all the reasons — the training, the commitment, the discipline, et cetera — as to why I could never do it. That’s all I needed to hear.”
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