Boston Marathon 
Zdeno Chára crosses the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2024. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
By Kevin Slane
April 17, 2025
It will be hard to spot a face in the crowd of 30,000 participants at the 2025 Boston Marathon on Monday. But if you search hard enough, you may spy a couple of famous faces along the 26.2-mile race course.
Each year, a handful of celebrities head to Boston to try their luck at the Boston Marathon. Recent participants include former Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, “The Bachelor” star Matt James, and “Supernatural” actor Jared Padalecki, who tackled the race in 2019 along with his wife, Genevieve.
Beyond those bold-faced names, coverage of the Boston Marathon has created its own class of notable competitors. Elite American runners like Des Linden and Sara Hall will be back, as will former Boston Marathon champions like 7-time Men’s Wheelchair Division winner Marcel Huig.
At the 2025 Boston Marathon, the famous participants will include a number of local newscasters, Olympic medalists, and athletes who played an important part in Boston Marathon history.
Here are all of the celebrities and notable figures running the 2025 Boston Marathon.
Former Boston Bruins defender Zdeno Chara crosses the finish line at the 2023 Boston Marathon. – Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Boston Bruins legend Zdeno Chara is set to run his third straight Boston Marathon. The longtime Bruins defenseman towered over the course in 2023 and 2024 while raising money for the Thomas E. Smith Foundation and the Hoyt Foundation.
Father and son duo Dick and Rick Hoyt were Boston Marathon fixtures for years, with Dick (who passed away in 2021) pushing Rick in a wheelchair. The Smith Foundation supports those living with paralysis, while the Hoyt Foundation aims to “build the individual character, self-confidence and self-esteem of America’s disabled young people.”
Matt James, the star of “The Bachelor” Season 25, will be running his first Boston Marathon since 2022.
The reality TV star will be pulling double duty, both running the race and serving as a field correspondent for ESPN and WCVB-TV while out on the course.
Ambrose “Amby” Burfoot was an elite marathoner in the 1960s and ’70s, winning the race in 1968. Burfoot was destined for Boston Marathon greatness, training in high school under 1957 Boston Marathon winner John J. Kelley and rooming in college with four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers.
Burfoot, 77, will be wearing the bib number 1968 in honor of his milestone victory 56 years ago.
Dave McGillivray, Boston Marathon race director, crosses the finish line in 2018. – Courtesy of Dave McGillivray
For years, Boston Marathon race course director Dave McGillivray was consistently the last runner to finish the race. That’s not because he’s slow — his personal best time is 2:29:58 — but because he was too busy overseeing every aspect of the race to compete until well after most runners already crossed the finish line.
Last year, McGillivray ran his first race from the middle of the scrum. For this year’s race, his 53rd Boston Marathon, the plan is the same: See off the first two waves of open division runners, then hit the course.
McGillivray’s son, Luke, a 19-year-old freshman at Boston College, is running his first Boston Marathon as well.
“That will make three of my five kids who have run Boston…Max, Elle and now Luke,” McGillivray said in an email. “Pretty cool.”
Radcliffe, a former world record holder in the Women’s Marathon, will wear Bib 215 in honor of her then-record time of 2 hours, 15 minutes (and 25 seconds).
Radcliffe will also be aiming to earn her Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal, given to runners who complete the Boston, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City marathons.
Olympian Brian Diemer will wear Bib 1984 in honor of bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He’ll be running his first-ever marathon along with his daughter, McKenzie Pluymert.
“After years of telling everybody adamantly I would never run a Marathon, I qualified for Boston,” Diemer said in a Facebook video. “And so now I have to run it.”
Professional golfer Scott Stallings won his first PGA Tour tournament back in 2011, and has been on the pro circuit ever since. When a shoulder injury forced him to take time away from the links, Stallings turned his attention to running.
Though he was raised in Knoxville, Stallings was born in Worcester, and made frequent visits back to New England with family. For his first-ever Marathon, Stallings is running to raise money for the local charity Golf Fights Cancer.
“I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts right down the road,” Stallings said in an Instagram video. “I turned 40 in March. This the first time in my life I’ve ever had the time and attention to train for something like this.”
Former figure skater and WBZ broadcaster Alice Cook will be running her second Boston Marathon since being diagnosed with ALS in December 2023. (Erin Clark/Globe Staff) – Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Former Olympic figure skater and longtime WBZ sports reporter Alice Cook is running her third Boston Marathon overall, and second since being diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in December 2023.
Though she can no longer speak due to the effects of the neurodegenerative disease, Cook wrote in an interview with the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont that she hoped her run would show the world that there are glimmers of hope to be found in the “dark places” of dealing with ALS.
Cook will be running to raise money for Compassionate Care ALS, which supports people with ALS and their families.
“There is nothing ALS patients have done to cause their disease,” Cook wrote. “For me, I am trying to find peace by letting go. Rather than hunt for answers, I take solace in the present moment. The ‘why’ of this is less important to me than the ‘now.’”
Carter, the Celtics’ play-by-play voice on NBC Sports Boston, is running the Boston Marathon to benefit the Shamrock Foundation, a Celtics program designed to support children in need.
Carter told Boston.com that while he ran cross-country in high school, the 2025 Boston Marathon will be his first.
“This just feels like the perfect way for me to use my platform as the Celtics announcer and my background as a runner to do some good and have a lot of fun and get to be a part of that fabric and one of the truly special things about Boston,” Carter said.
WCVB reporter Emily Maher ran the 2024 Boston Marathon for the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. This year, the journalist will be running to raise money for the Matt Brown Foundation, which helps individuals and families impacted by long-term illness or injury, with a focus on paralysis.
Brown, who suffered a spinal injury while playing high school hockey, will be participating in the duo division of the Boston Marathon for the 11th time with his running partner, Lucas Carr.
Two NBC 10 Boston reporters — Matt Prichard and Malcolm Johnson — will also be joining the field of journalists participating in the 2025 Boston Marathon.
Prichard will be raising money for Boston Medical Center, while Johnson will be running on behalf of Boston Children’s Hospital.
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
