Boston Marathon Buses - Why so early? Can we take a later bus?

BAA does not want to dump a later wave of runners at the start before the ealier waves are in place.

their is no better way to get to the start on race day short of spending the night before there.

my quick though wrote:

BAA does not want to dump a later wave of runners at the start before the ealier waves are in place.

There is no better way to get to the start on race day short of spending the night before there.

still poorly written

BostonHJP wrote:

It will be my first time running Boston in April. I am in wave 1, corral 3. Which says I Shoshone board a bus at 6-6:45am... why are these buses so early? Can I take a later bus? Will there be space? Are they any other alternatives to get to the start line? What time do you think I should arrive By?

I don't recall the time of day but I was in wave 1 in 2017. I got to the buses about 20 minutes before they started loading and then the buses sat there for 20 minutes or longer before they headed to the school. I got there early because I signed up for an early shuttle trip from my hotel. I probably ended up at the school 90 minutes or more before I needed to for the first wave. The weather was nice and I found something to lay on and found room under the tent. I think if you show up at 6 you may be able to board a bus but it may not leave until 6:15 to 6:20.

Hope for good weather but take something to lay on and extra clothing you may discard. Keep the extra clothing on until you are in your coral if it is cold or wet outside. Take food to eat while on the bus. There are bananas and other items at the school.

The BAA needs to get runners there on time and they probably need to start moving them earlier because they cannot get all of each wave there at the ideal time.

The line of buses that I was in in 2018 got lost once they got off the interstate. The drive to the start seemed to take twice as long as the 2017 ride to the school. Yes, they dropped us off about a mile away from the starting line. I never bothered walking on to the school and enjoyed watching each wave prior to my wave, 2, take off. There was no line at the portable toilets behind a building near the starting line.

You could sign up for and pay extra for one of the many private buses. You could stay at a hotel in a community near the starting line.

The Bus shuttle operations have calculated traffic it's early so participants will arrive 1.5hrs before start. If you leave later your almost guaranteed to rush to the start only to be slowed by unnecessary traffic because you left later.

If you have a vehicle and want to take that your best option is leaving before Buses, but that's not the point...really just load up your bag with extras use as a pillow for relaxing in school/bus then head out refreshed/relaxed for your warmup

Oh yeah Parking, it's all closed off in Hopkington and if you did find a spot you'd get gouged $$, or towed

If you do have someone to drop you off great but you still have to leave early to avoid 2hour extra traffic. The Buses are almost mandantory Hopkington is a small town not designed to have 30,000 vehicles arrive between 8&9am. I could tell you other possible avenues which will from a first timer perspective get lost... Please take Bus

Snowflake . . . get yourself an Uber or Lyft.

it's a part of the Boston Marathon experience enjoy it..dont be an elitist

It’s early so you can board a POS school bus and take selfies and show off that you got a BQ and post updates about it to your Facebook before the gun goes off. Then you can race slower than your qualifying PR since Boston Marathon is a slow course except in years it gets a tailwind.

Which bus should my videographer take?

You will want to be in your corral by 9:30-9:40 a.m. so work backward from there.

You'll be dropped off at athlete's village - a little less than one mile from the starting area and it's going to take a while to make that trip to the start because of the crowds. And the security checkpoints. Legitimately give yourself 15 minutes to make the trip and find yourself in your corral. (That also assumes you do a light jog to the corrals).

You'll probably want a little warmup too before you make your way to the corrals. Something where you're just running on a small uncrowded street - so that's another 10 minutes (we're already at about 9:00 a.m. if we we are working backward).

When you're out in the ballfield, you'll probably want some food, drinks, use the bathroom (and battle the lines) so again, plan a solid 30+ minutes just for that. (8:30 a.m.)

It takes about one hour on the bus just to get out there from the moment it departs Boston Common, maybe longer. (7:30, at best).

And it takes a while just to wait in the line of runners and board the bus. 7:00 a.m.

So if they're telling you that it's a good idea to be in that line by 6:15 or 6:20. They're not wrong.

You've trained all winter for this. You're going to have to go through a bunch of crap just to get to the start. You might as well give yourself that extra 30-45 minute cushion to make sure you don't miss the race.

BostonHJP wrote:

It will be my first time running Boston in April. I am in wave 1, corral 3. Which says I Shoshone board a bus at 6-6:45am... why are these buses so early? Can I take a later bus? Will there be space? Are they any other alternatives to get to the start line? What time do you think I should arrive By?

Shut up and get on the bus, you waterhead.

There are continuous shuttles from Hopkinton State Park and EMC in Hopkinton, if you can get out there somehow.

BostonHJP wrote:

It will be my first time running Boston in April. I am in wave 1, corral 3. Which says I Shoshone board a bus at 6-6:45am... why are these buses so early? Can I take a later bus? Will there be space? Are they any other alternatives to get to the start line? What time do you think I should arrive By?

Not sure it's possible to be a more neurotic turd than you are.

You are going to be experiencing a race with your peers. Does it really have to be explained you should talk to other people and enjoy the experience, warts and all? Amazing things happen when you stop worrying about things you have no control over and enjoy the moment.

I've run the last 6 Boston Marathons. To answer your questions...

They ask you to arrive early so as to space out people arriving at the Athletes village. It's logistically impossible for all of wave one to leave the Boston Common at the same time.

There are other alternatives, but short of staying in Hopkinton, none that I've seen which offer the convenience of the BAA buses (provided you're not elite, sponsored or paid member of the Unicorn Club).

You can take a later bus. Even if you miss your wave start you can start in a later wave. But this is frowned upon, because if everyone took later buses, the logistics wouldn't work. Though I admit I did take a later bus last year to avoid sitting in the mud and rain at the athletes village. Talking to people on the bus, there were a lot of people who did the same thing. Got there 20 minutes before my corral was released to the start line.

You forgot to add in time to drop off a checked gear bag, if you choose to do so.

The last time I ran (2014), gear bag drop was in Boston Common, next to the bus loading. Now, gear drop is on Boylston, west of the common. See map:

https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/enter/gear-check

Depending on where you stay and how you get to the bus loading, note that dropping your bag may take longer than it used to. If you plan to drop a bag, add this time into your plans.

Depending on where you stay & if you have access to a car you can be dropped off in Hopkinton. There's another school staging location where you take a bus 5 minutes to the start village. You can chill at the other location for a bit and that's where you go through separate security so you don't have to do it again.

If one is taking an uber how close can the uber get and what address do I give the driver?

dafsdfsdf wrote:

If one is taking an uber how close can the uber get and what address do I give the driver?

South Street lot

52 South Street, Hopkinton, MA

You can get a shuttle bus from there.

If I am in first wave and I hope in an uber at 8am from downtown to take me to the south lot, is that cutting things too close? I should be at the parking lot by 9am latest I would think. Is an hour enough for the shuttle bus?